Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Bonding by reading, story-telling and . . .



In today's mindyourbody in The Straits Times, I read with interest the article on "Bonding by reading".

I fully agree with Md Hartiny that bonding continued from the moment the baby is borned. I also like her idea of reading not confining to just books - reading anything and everything, like television sub-titles, road signs and even instruction manuals.

Well, I would like to add that story-telling and singing are also good for bonding. I remembered telling my children the same old story every night and they still ask for the same story on the next night. That's because, I will have high and low pitches when I relate different roles in the story. One example is the The Three Bears. I will have a low pitch voice when I imitate Papa Bear, medium pitch for Mama Bear and high pitch for Baby Bear. The children just loved it.

When they were babies, I used to sing lullabies to them. When they were older, I changed the lyrics to suite the family story. This really sparked their creativity and they also start putting their own words to change the lyrics too.

For story-telling, all libraries do have these sessions on specific days and for different age groups. Singapore parents, do check out the schedules and make an effort to bring your children there. While they enjoy their delights, you can also have a break to pick some groceries or do some chores and fetch them later.

At different age, children have different needs. After certain age, they will not want to go anymore. So wait no more.

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