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The Best Way To Read A Book

Hallmark - Find Your Influence

One of my most cherished times with my daughters has always been storytime. I love my littles, I love books, and I love storytelling, so there’s no surprise there. But one thing you may not know is that our storytime rarely happens at bedtime.

I didn’t own any books when I was growing up, so I really wanted my girls to take full advantage of theirs, to be fully awake, live the story, and act it out. I wanted my daughters to love reading as much as I do and to be transported to another time, another place, another dimension.

The best way to read a book

Enter the middle of the day story time, always personalized, dramatized, and often expanded – with randomly added chapters and alternate endings.

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis believed that the love of books is the best way to enlarge your child’s world. And the more our children can learn, the better!

There are three main types of learning styles: auditory, visual, and kinesthetic, and I believe the best way to read a book is to engage all the senses and to combine all three learning styles.

There’s an ancient Chinese proverb that reads:

“Tell me, I’ll forget. Show me, I’ll remember. Involve me, I’ll understand.”

When we read a book to a child, we show them the words and illustrations, and we tell them what is going on, or what the words say… but how do we involve them?

By incorporating other senses besides hearing, listening, seeing, and observing: feel, touch, smell, taste, right brain, left brain, and experiential learning. Involving a child helps ignite the imagination, ensures long-term retention, and works with all children, no matter how differently they learn.

Eliana - personalized book from Hallmark

Thankfully, my 2-year-old Pigeon is a big fan of my reading method, so I don’t have to reinvent the wheel. She loves the story and reading time because she’s always the star!

I love to make up my own story, where she is the leader, the princess, the hero, the warrior, the genius, the virtuous. Every time I start:

“Once upon a time, there was a little girl… Her name was…”

She knows the reply is “Eliana.” She looks at me with those flirty brown eyes and that adorable smile and says her name with such pride and joy. She’s fully engaged in the story and chimes in from time to time.

I exaggerate my voice, act out many parts, make weird faces to illustrate emotions, and use the occasional onomatopoeia to make a point or to make it funny, and lots of analogies, metaphors that are relatable to her age and interests. I’ll even use props (which is why daytime works best; at night, I’m often too exhausted to go all into it).

Besides the stories of my making, I love personalizing the book by replacing a character’s name with hers. The most magical aspect of this method is that they can even have a different part each time you read the book to them.

And of course, nowadays you can personalize books with the child’s name, which is amazing! I did this for Eliana’s first Christmas. I know she was four months old, but I just couldn’t help myself… and she’s loved having it read to her… and “reading” from it herself. She knows all her ABCs and can already read and recognize a few common words!

When you personalize a book, it’s not just content, it is now a meaningful experience. By involving your child seamlessly in the story, making him an active participant in the plot, you can make your child’s dream come true through the power of imagination.

“Imagination is more important than knowledge.” ~ Albert Einstein

I recently went to Hallmark.com and created a fully personalized book for Eliana, where she gets to go to the ocean with “La Sirenita” (The Little Mermaid).

It was an incredible experience because it wasn’t just the name I could change: you can customize the hairstyle, hair color, eye color, skin color, and even the gender of the main character. Their name appears all throughout the book!

Imagination is more important than knowledge

I also loved that every book lets you add your very own name, so it is a family keepsake your child will love and cherish for years to come. I wrote Elisha, Elyssa, mama and papa, because I love that Eliana is already bilingual. Some books can be ordered in Spanish, too!

Personalizing Little Pige’s book was very simple. I simply picked a book from the available titles, customized it, and previewed the entire book before the purchase.

You can find a great variety of books to personalize at Shop.Hallmark.com and they are $5 off til December 13 (there are many other great deals for people who like to show affection through presents in the holiday season)!

Eliana loves her Sirenita book. She says that I am Ariel because she loves to be with her mami. She definitely is a mami’s girl and that totally melts my heart. I pray I can continue to be home with her and to reinforce in her how much she’s loved and the values I want her to live by. I’m definitely savoring this time, before she starts reading thick books to me – or writing books, even – just like her older sisters.

Whether you read during the day or the story is a part of your child’s bedtime routine, you can raise a reader by providing her extra incentive, excitement, and enthusiasm, simply because in this storybook they get to be the protagonist.

[Tweet “Involve your child and used personalized books to instill a love of reading! #Hallmark”]

Integrating the child in the action helps our little ones feel a sense of ownership over the story you are reading or telling, which in turn, encourages them to develop a love of learning, a love of reading, and a love of using their imagination.

And guess what? You can also enter for a chance WIN one of these unique gifts for a child in your life by commenting below and answering this question: What book title would you order and who would you order it for? I look forward to knowing the answer – and announcing the winner!

Elayna is a homeschool educator, single mom of 4, founder of the Positive MOM Community, award-winning Storyteller, Story Strategist, and Student of Pain. She’s a bestselling author, internationally acclaimed keynote speaker, and 3x TEDx speaker. To receive a gift from Elayna, click HERE.

Be Positive and You Will Be Powerful ~ Elayna FernandBe Positive and You Will Be Powerful ~ Elayna Fernandez ~ The Positive MOMez ~ The Positive MOM
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Melissa Vera

Thursday 31st of December 2015

My favorite time when my girls were little were when I could read to them. I miss those days.

Kelly Hutchinson

Thursday 31st of December 2015

I had no idea Hallmark made these books. What a great gift for the younger reader!

Angela

Saturday 19th of December 2015

I love how books can transport you. Personalized books are such a fun way to foster creativity and imagination.

Amber Nelson

Friday 18th of December 2015

We love reading books at our house and it is a ritual to do a bedtime story!

Jeanine

Friday 18th of December 2015

How adorable! These are some great and useful tips! We love personalized books.