The modern world has countless types of attractive and addictive entertainment, but reading still has its own value, bringing quiet joy and lasting resonance. As translator and speaker Nguyen Quoc Vuong wrote in the foreword in the book “Reading is more interesting than you think”: “The joy of reading is very necessary for people living in a society obsessed with quantity, speed, precision and bias in material consumption as it is today. That joy is also needed for individuals who feel insecure, lonely, and disappointed in the ever-faster flow of modern life.”
Working in the media field and being friends with books since childhood, I understand the value and benefits of reading books for the process of growing up and perfecting each individual’s personality. Therefore, I always find ways to persuade my children to read books. Being hyperactive and playful, my two sons love watching TV, playing games on their phones, and are more excited to participate in sports activities than sitting around reading books. To help my children access books, I apply many methods, such as not allowing the use of the phone, disconnecting the TV, regulating sports practice times, and limiting extra classes to create free time for my children to read. I also display books from the living room to the bedroom, study table, dining table and even give attractive rewards if my children read books. But the result is just like “throwing stones in the pond”, my two children are still indifferent to books. I used to get angry, irritable and disappointed when my child didn’t do what I wanted.
In the summer of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic struck, all activities stopped, social interaction became a luxury and children’s need to explore became even more exciting and frustrating. At that moment, I decided to ignore my own reading needs and brought out the books “Tough Childhood”, “No Family”, “The Little Prince”, “Totochan at the Window”… to read. Come back and immerse yourself in the character’s world. My two children saw their mother crying and laughing alone, so they prowled around and asked her, urgently hoping she would tell the story, but I refused and even provoked her: “Before, I thought children were always causing trouble for adults, but it turned out that There are many very interesting little people! It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to relive my childhood. I wish my children could return to what they are now…”.
Parents accompany their children to discover the interesting things of reading.
After a few weeks, during family meals, I began to see my children mentioning the names of characters in storybooks, asking if there was a school in Vietnam like the school where Totochan studied, and then dreamed of meeting the teacher. The principal is warm like little Totochan; I want to draw and plant roses like the Little Prince; I even bring the lessons that Mr. Vitalis taught little Remi in the story “No Family” to apply to my real life. I also told my favorite story “Tough Childhood” because I admired and admired the contact boy named Luom and I sobbed because I was so sad and haunted by the death of Mung boy…
Gradually, every time I have questions about life, confusion in communicating with the opposite sex, or curiosity about puberty, there are even class exercises that mention a historical figure, a land or a certain problem… children always ask me if there are any books related to those stories. Just like that, my child’s need to read gradually increased, he searched the family bookshelf, took out even my old books to read. Once by chance, while chatting with relatives (with my children there), I complained, “Why are there so few tears at the funeral, so much ceremony?” After hearing that sentence, my eldest son immediately interrupted and pointed out, “The sentence you just said was read in the poetry collection “Unbiased”, right?”. I was surprised because it was a thin poetry book with extremely short “condensed” poems but full of empirical positivist thinking that the Sociological Research teacher gave me more than 10 years ago. What surprised me was how a 12-13 year old boy was interested in and even remembered such philosophical poems.
From the experience of getting my children to read books, it has reinforced my awareness that each child is an independent world, with their own personality and temperament. Therefore, it is difficult to apply experience or bring your own understanding of information into raising children, which always requires the learning and maturity of the parents themselves. Parents should not be impatient, waste time and have too much expectation when forcing children to do what they want. In particular, reading should not be considered a heavy task, but it is important to create a reading environment. Remembering the theme of this year’s Vietnam Book and Reading Culture Day is “Good books need readers”, the more we see that the joy of reading must be spread from adults, parents, teachers, and then through actions. program that inspires and engages, drawing children into the exciting world of books.
