I am so, SO excited to share this news with you about something I have been working on for the past few weeks.
This year, our school year ended in a way that for a lot of students really shifted the way that they had to approach learning especially without the physical presence of a teacher there. I know that I really missed school (even if it was nice to have an extended “snow day”) and I am sure it was probably really hard for younger kids in a lot of ways. I don’t know about you, but one of my favorite things about school when I was younger was when the “big kids” would come into my classroom and read books to me. I really looked up to them, and I also loved listening to stories and hearing the older girls talk to me about the messages the books were trying to send. If I were younger, I would have missed that so much those last months of school.
Plus when it comes to reading, listen to this statistic I found from The Literacy Project Foundation’s website.
“By age 2, a child’s brain is as active as an adult’s and by age 3 the brain is more than twice as active as an adult’s and stays that way for the first 10 years of life.”
That’s crazy! Imagine the amount of impact just one book can do for a young child’s mind! I also found a quote from a baby book called, "Talk to Me, Baby!" by Betty Lynn Segal Bardige:
“Reading aloud to young children is not only one of the best activities to stimulate language and cognitive skills; it also builds motivation, curiosity, and memory.”
I have shared with you in the past that it’s SO incredibly important to instill self-confidence and positive self-esteem into children’s minds as soon as possible. Research shows that kids as young as 3 years old can have body image issues. I realized recently thinking about how I loved the "big girls" coming to read to my class when I was younger why not give kids not only the positive effects that reading can have on them, but also use reading as a way to help them grow up with a positive self and body image and include a whole new age group into my program! So many books out there have great messages in them about positive body and self image and if reading could have that much of an impact on a child’s body and self-image, you better believe I am going to read to them and so it is a double win!
So...over the past few weeks I have been working hard to be able to kick off “Positive Pages,” a new project as a part of Self-ValYOU where I will be reading a story or book that has a message of positive self or body image, or a message that can help to boost a child’s self-esteem, to kids on video! I am sure I will even learn a thing or two from these story times, and I can’t wait to build a video library that kids can reference any time from my website, or adults can share with a child you think could use these positive messages and conversations! I will also follow up each story talking about why I think it is important, what the main thing I learned from the story was, and some suggestions for questions to discuss when you read along with me. I will share links to the books too! I have collected some great books already (I am making Amazon very happy LOL) and can't wait to share them! You might even see some guest readers in my videos! The videos will be on my YouTube channel for Self-ValYOU and here on my website at https://www.selfvalyou.org/positive-pages.
If you are interested, I would LOVE to come read some Positive Pages to your classroom or group when we can safely be together in person! In the meantime I can do a session by Zoom!
I know this will be a great and fun resource to bring the message of Self-ValYOU to an even younger generation in a way they can understand and enjoy it. I have my first book picked out already...so stay tuned!
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