I’ve always enjoyed reading. As a kid, my mother made it a requirement. I remember getting books from my cousins. There were so many that we ended up turning one of our closets into a mini library.
Anything involving Michael Jackson was my subject of choice. You couldn’t stump me on Jackson trivia. I read so much about the family – I began to feel like one of them. My siblings and I would also take weekly trips to the Brooklyn Public Library to pick out books. My mom would also order books through the mail for us.
I can recall asking her about words I couldn’t pronounce or know the meaning to.
“Look it up in the dictionary” was her usual response. Who would have thought that years later there’d be the internet and a site called Google where we can research any word or anything for that matter.
Now that I’m a mom, I try to teach those same values to my kids. Despite reading a ton of books as a child, I wouldn’t consider myself a strong reader. A part of the reason – getting accustomed to the American way of writing versus the English way.
Even though English is our national language in Jamaica, we adopted many customs from the U.K. Take for I stance the word color. It’s actually spelled c-o-l-o-u-r where I’m from. The first syllable of the word schedule is pronounced with ‘sh’ sound rather than ‘sk.’
With all that said, reading is very important in our household. We’ve been reading to Princess since birth. We’ve also taken on the same tradition with Baby O.
Princess began reading on her own at two-years-old. She is able to identify and write all the letters of the alphabet. She’s also spelling words.
Like I did as child, trips to the library are a must. But most recently I was introduced to Zoobean, a curated library of books and apps for kids of all ages that aim at building literacy and inspire imagination.
I signed princess up for the hardcover plan. Every month she receives a book that’s handpicked by the Zoobean family. Each selection is based on Princess’s age, favorite genres, interest, and reading level.
There’s also digital and paperback plans available. Each selection is accompanied by an expert created Reading Guide or App Companion recommendation, which saves me time from trying to research and hand pick books and apps myself.
When it comes to literature, It’s important for my children to read books that feature families like ours. Princess received her first book, “All the World,” features a biracial family. She was happy that it came personally addressed to her, along with a thank you card from Zoobean. One of this month’s chosen app is Cinderella – one of her favorite Princess’s.
She’s already looking forward to next month’s selections. In the meantime, I’d like to offer a giveaway to a three month hardcover membership to Zoobean. All the information on how you may enter can be found below. Good luck!
How often do you read to your kids? Do you kids enjoy reading?
This post is sponsored by Zoobean. All opinions are my own.