Childhood without books, or Why vaccinate your child a love of reading

What if, when I was growing up, social media already existed? I learned how to formulate thoughts longer than 140 characters? What if, after school, I do not write children's stories about the trustful PSE and sly cat, and playing Angry Birds? If not go to sleep with the "Island of Blue Dolphins" by Scott O'Dell on the chest and on the iPad mini?

Probably, the best thing parents did for me - discovered the world of books.

They introduced me to him at an early age and do not distract from his knowledge. It allowed me to become a writer.

For the first time parents tried to enroll me in the library when I was four. The librarian looked down at me and said: "For a start she needed to learn how to write his name." We went home. Parents are shown how to spell it, and when I did it again, we came back and I got a library card.

They taught me to read earlier.

No no! I'm not a child prodigy! I was an ordinary child. I spent much time in the back yard and the ants taught to swim in plastic containers. Often I tried to teach cats to wear socks and pestered my mother questions like "why clouds move down when the plane flies up?".

But my parents worked They taught me to literature.

In six years, I have one for another "swallowed" the book from the children's department of the local library. In primary obedient read product defined in summer. One hundred percent. Maybe I just have trouble with math, because to win the annual competition of the library had just read as many books as stated. For example, ten.

Sometimes I wandered in the children's section of the bookstore, scanning the shelves on the subject has not yet been read. "Charlotte's Web" E. B. White, "Little Women," Louisa May Alcott, "Ramona" by Helen Hunt Jackson, Nancy Drew investigation by Edward Stratemeyera, "The Chronicles of Narnia," CS Lewis; "Little House on the Prairie" Laura Wilder, "The Indian in the palm" Lynne Reid Banks, "The girl with the silver eyes" Dashiell Hammett, all Scott O'Dell - I loved it all.

Parents restrictions were introduced on some books. As a consequence, I read even a few things for his age: a biography of Patsy Cline, "Fear Street" by Robert Lawrence Stine, and a series of "School in Sweet Valley" Francine Pascal.

I am ashamed to admit it, but now I'm not so voracious reader as a child. Now I am not less than the others stare at screens and monitors. If bedtime doubt between a small volume of William Bryson and new series "The Mindy Project", the latter usually wins.

But I'm convinced that I can put words into slender proposal because this mechanism is caught early enough.

I do not know what would have happened if my mother to distract me while buying products that popped into my iPhone hands. Instead, she invents a story like carrots dancing when I turn away. And if I did not believe, he called the seller to confirm.

I've always loved the word. It's true. But it is also true that I was forced to spend a lot of time tete-a-tete with the books, no matter what distractions. My parents had an active life, and most of his childhood was spent in waiting.

I waited over a business meeting. Waited for an interview will be held and it will be possible to leave the room. Waiting until someone spare me and maybe give candy. While the adults were discussing business strategy, I sat on the sidelines in the company of his favorite books. Of course, sometimes someone would say, "How do you get her to sit quietly and just read?".

Sometimes adults working so longI had an end of the book, which I took with me. Then, out of boredom, I write my own stories.

I remember, I am most fascinated plot of rustic-silly golden retriever and a sly cat, dog enjoyed the credulity. Their complex relationship developed in the world of animals and were hidden from the understanding of the host.

I was only ten. The parents sat for hours at meetings of the trade union of the American Federation of Teachers. In addition, we have almost settled in the election headquarters. So I not only copes with dressing office coffee machines, but also has a few chapters of the PSE-dupe and his cat-like cunning enemies.

But what would happen if I held it while flipping through Tumblr or watching YouTube? have entered the word in my nervous system? I jumped out of the shower with soapy head to record the line until it disappeared into his mind?

The report of the company Scholastic (One of the world's largest publisher of children's literature), published in 2014, noted that the number of children who read for pleasure has decreased in comparison with 2010. This is especially noticeable among boys and girls six years to nine years. And this against a background of growth in the number of children playing video games and hang in smartphones.

It is noted that in the reading rate affects the time spent at the computer: fewer children sit in front of the monitor, the more likely they are reading. For example, 54% rarely read the guys look in sotsialki not less than five times a week. For avid reciters also may include a total of 33% of the surveyed children aged 6 to 17 years. While 71% of parents would want their child less time staring at the screen and more - in the book.

By itself, the fact that the increase in time spent in front of screens younger generation does not prove that it was because of this, children are no longer read. There are many other reasons. What and how much children read carefully? How to read a lot of their parents? Does the child enjoy reading?

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends: Children from three to seven years should spend in front of screens of not more than one to two hours a day; children under the age of - zero hours. The organization calls to remind parents about it at each scheduled inspection.

But at the same time year-old child of my friends naughty if while eating vegetable puree with a spoon he does not include the children's channel on YouTube. He already unlocks iPhone, unattended without difficulty. I do not be surprised that a couple of years he will not let it go. (I left my phone in the next room, to focus on this stuff, so I'm also not an example to follow.)

What I want to say?

Not that modern technology - it's bad. Just a matter of concern, how much time we spend on gadgets.

Who would we be if we spent it differently? Why fully formed personality prokrastiniruyut sitting in Facebook and Instagram, and we do not know how to help them?

Perhaps you need to buy a book Randi Zuckerberg (yes, that same sister Zuckerberg) "Point» (Dot). The main character, a girl named Dot, loves technology stuff, but when my mother took away her plate, she quickly realized how beautiful the world out of the screen.

Or purchase a new product "If you give a little mouse iPhone». (Warning, spoiler: it is worse than the legendary "If you give a little mouse a cookie," Laura Numeroff.)

I have no answers to these questions. I'm not a psychologist, not an expert in the field of social media, not a parent and not an advanced teenager. I'm just a girl who grew up in surrounded by books and sometimes miss them.