Reading Challenge at Eager Readers – so much more than just reading

Reading stories does so much more than create literacy. As the Founder of Eager Readers, I feel so humbled to see how much reading can enhance a child’s life skills. It is the children in fact who have shown me what an impact we as educators can create on them if we can guide them appropriately

Stories don’t just help kids develop language literacy. They help them develop life literacy too.

Young readers love stories in which a young character is facing a problem bigger and more threatening than any they’ve faced before. To solve or survive the problem, the character must develop skills and qualities beyond their previous experience or homework. Such as:

* Thinking bravely and honestly about what’s causing the problem.

* Developing their research skills to better understand what they’re up against.

* Big problems require teamwork, so the character needs to form friendships and alliances. Understanding enemies is a help too. All of which requires development of people skills, in particular empathy.

* Creative thinking is a must because a character with a problem needs problem-solving strategies.

* And resilience is inevitable because big problems never get solved on page 27, not when an author is contracted to write 250 pages. Which gives the young character plenty of opportunities to pick themselves up and try again.

You can probably see where this is going. As young characters steam ahead on their problem-solving journeys, young readers are at their side, imaginations aglow, offering advice and care and creative solutions. And themselves absorbing every one of these new skills and abilities.

At Eager Readers we had a Reading Challenge (December 20 to January 15) for 2 age groups 6-8 years and 9-14 years.

The response has been so phenomenal that we at Eager Readers are stumped. A little encouragement, a little guidance and these kids are flying. 3 kids from the 6-8 years batch completed all the 10 books suggested. Amongst the older batch 2 groups read 4 and 5 books respectively in the group reading challenge.

Reading for pleasure keeps their minds expanding, their hearts beating with humanity, and helps them explore who they are and who they could become. And when one of your favourite activities is equipping you with resilience, creative thinking, empathy, bravery, interpersonal skills and problem-solving abilities, there’s no limit to who you can be.

Thank you kids for such am amazing response and thank you for loving our suggested books.