Since graduating university in 2010, I have been engaged in preschool education. I still remember that at the very beginning of my work, a classmate from college who had just became a mother called me asking about how to choose the right preschool for her child. After I answered her queries patiently, she said, “I envy you so much. The career you choose is really helpful for your child and family.”

Years later, I realized that it was true that choosing this career has played a significant role in my child’s education. We all hope our children will enjoy reading, and we know the importance of reading. As a mother of a nearly two-year-old child, I have been trying to arouse her interest in reading. Here I want to share with you some of my thoughts and experiences on parent-child reading.

First of all, the basis of parent-child reading is to promote interaction between parents and their children. We can’t expect a young child to learn to read by himself at the very beginning and all of a sudden fall in love with reading like a miracle. In my opinion, the reason why children love reading is that they enjoy spending time with their parents. She/he likes to lean on their parents’ arms, listen to their sweet voices, and enjoy their caresses or kisses. Over time, they make connections between happiness and reading. And it turns out that reading does make us happy.

Secondly, there are some simple techniques for reading. While guiding children to learn to read, we should avoid repeated questions. In other words, we do not want to see our children struggling with the frustration of not being able to answer the questions. In addition, we can also teach our children to observe the details. For example, recently we read the book The Ants and the Watermelon. Down in the ants’ hole there are nests filled with different things. My husband would lead my daughter to say: “Look, the ants are making fried rice with eggs!

Furthermore, as parents, we should also enjoy the process. As long as we parents throw ourselves into this pursuit, naturally we will have an impact on our children, and sooner or later they will develop an interest in reading. We should refuse to use double standards. While requesting our children to read books, we can also quietly stay aside reading a book or newspapers ourselves. In other words, we can find a quiet place and quietly enjoy reading together with our children.

Therefore, what matters is our time and guidance to help children develop an interest in reading. At least in the first few years, they need our support and assistance. Moreover, I quite believe that it won’t be long before our children give us the most satisfactory feedback.