“The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge, but imagination” Albert Einstein.
“Our aim is not only to make the child understand, but to touch his/her imagination.” Maria Montessori
It is never too early to start reading to your child to enrich and stretch his/her imagination. Reading to a young child is a crucial aspect of language and literacy development. The American Association of Pediatrics now recommends that parents and educators read to children from infancy through at least kindergarten. Reading to children all the way through elementary school and beyond has many benefits. “Reading regularly with young children stimulates optimal patterns of brain development and strengthens parent-child relationships at a critical time in child development, which, in turn, builds language, literacy, and social-emotional skills that last a lifetime.” (pediatrics.aappublications.org)
Little Lea is very fortunate to have the public library close by. The children love walking to the library to pick an interesting book and to have a story read to them by the children’s librarian, Mrs. Short. Introducing the children to such literary environments helps to cultivate a love for all kinds of learning opportunities.
With the books chosen, the children get to read it in their Reading Nook at Little Lea or be read to during the day. Every day, during lunch hour, the children know that a few books from their pile from the library get chosen to be read while they are eating.
Reading helps stimulate the children’s imagination, grow their vocabulary and nurture understanding about the world. The closeness of snuggling up with a favorite book leads to an increase in self-confidence and imagination, and helps children gain a wealth of knowledge from the books one shares. And it only takes 15 minutes a day of reading together to nurture this growth!
Little Lea Montessori 