A mother asked Albert Einstein what might help her son to become a great scientist.
His answer?
If you want him to be intelligent, read him fairy tales. If
you want him to be more intelligent, read him more fairy tales.
Creative imagination is the essential element in the mind of the true scientist, Einstein believed. And fairy tales, replete with magic helpers and evil monsters and daring quests, stimulate young imaginations most brilliantly. So for your children’s fun and even future glory, read away to your young ones…or play one my CDs of the best fairy tales and nature myths at home or in the car.
As proof of Einstein’s point, in this month’s Insights, SCWBI’s newsletter, Lin Oliver writes:
In 2014, the American Academy of Pediatrics issued a policy saying that literacy promotion, beginning at birth, should be part of all pediatric primary care…Mountains of scientific evidence exist to show that regular reading aloud with children leads to improved language development and long-term school success.
On top of the scientific benefit, I can think of nothing dearer than sharing a story you love with a child you love, or with many children. Sitting side by side and turning the pages of a picture book, reading stories aloud, or listening together to recordings of stories—from those sweet hours, young imaginations will thrive happily ever after.
