Read To Me Day

International Read To Me Day is celebrated on March 19th of every year. Once upon a time, listening to the stories was the greatest fun. Many of the last century parents have spent their time with the children to tell stories during their leisure time especially with the bedtime stories. It has encouraged them to fall in love with reading. But now the literacy skills are often taken for granted, and as a result, reading has become difficult for both the adults and children. It is found that one another cause for the lack of reading skills is that the children of the current decade have no-one to read to them. Thus the International Read To Me Day was created as to bring in some changes and to improve the reading ability among all sort of people and especially with the children. Thus the Day encourages in raising the literacy level and a love of reading.

“Reading is a basic tool in the living of a good life.” – Joseph Addison

History of International Read To Me Day

Child Writes Foundation has established the International Read To Me Day. The exact mention of the first occurrence of this celebration Day is however unknown. The Day is an international campaign created and aimed at encouraging the children to remind the adults in their village to read to them often. As literacy is a gateway skill for all us, the Day was also created as one another fundamental cog in the literacy advocacy wheel. Although the celebration focuses on encouraging the children to read, the fundamental facts about this Day, however, extends even to adults. The Day empowers the children to join in the conversation about their own literacy by evoking the adults around them about the importance of being read to, regularly. Literacy creates social connection and provides an opportunity which is the key to every child’s future success.

It is found that reading to children almost every day essentially doubles their progress to one year ahead of the group. Thus to obtain the knowledge of phonics, children need a lot of pleasure reading activity. The International Read To Me Day is aimed at changing the dynamic and empowering the children to ask for more support not only for their family but also from the community. Thus the key part of this strategy is to mark a day when the kids could ask to be read to. The Day also aims to promote, encourage and inspire the reading activities within the communities and showcases those organisations who are passionate about improving the literacy skills of the children around them.

How to Celebrate International Read To Me Day

The best way to celebrate the International Read To Me Day is to read to a child. It is essential for all of us to take time to read to the children each day. Encourage them to read a good storybook to improvise their knowledge. Make pleasure reading a part of an everyday routine activity in the life of any child. You can even organize the children at your place to read to them with a story. You can remind the adults around to take time to read to their children. Be a support to someone to improve their vocabulary and creativity by reading to them. You can even give your books to someone who is in need of books. Use the hashtag #InternationalReadToMeDay to spread and post your views on the social media.