The Brilliant Benefits of Books
Happy World Book Day, book lovers! Today is just about the greatest day of the year because it celebrates how wonderful books really are. It celebrates that joyful feeling you experience when you hold a book in your hands and feel the texture of the cover and pages. It celebrates those nights where you stay up late thinking, "Just one more chapter." It celebrates the water damage from your tears that fell onto the pages as you cried for your favorite character. It celebrates the worn out spines and coffee stains that symbolize a well-loved book.
But most of all, it celebrates the impact that reading can have on a person, particularly a young child. In short, World Book Day celebrates the love anyone can have for books.
What Is World Book Day?
World Book Day is a day designated to encourage children across the globe to explore the joy of books and reading. In the United Kingdom and Ireland, World Books Day is on March 7. However, the United States and many other countries celebrate it on April 23, which is the anniversary of the first ever World Book Day in 1995.
To encourage children to read, schools, libraries, and many other organizations across the United Kingdom provide Book Tokens that children can then take to participating bookstores to get one of ten free books. These Book Tokens help some 15 million children receive a free book.
Why Celebrate Books?
We all know that reading is good for you. Whether you know that by experience, through someone telling you, or more intuitively, it's absolutely true. And it's not just book lovers trying to persuade everyone else to love reading; there are actual studies to support the claim that reading is good.
Reading is beneficial for all ages, but it is especially crucial for young children. From reading aloud to the unborn baby in your tummy to taking time to read with your child(ren) at home, it all makes a difference. Here are just some of the many benefits that reading - particularly reading aloud - can have on young children:
- Sets a foundation of language and speech patterns
- Builds emotional awareness and social skills
- Establishes proper word pronunciation and enunciation
- Provides a broader vocabulary
- Creates an internal motivation to read on their own
- Lets imagination grow as they explore situations beyond their own experiences
- Develops empathy
- Exercises the brain, particularly areas that are crucial for language development
- Enhances concentration
- Creates a habit of reaching for books instead of a screen (ie: cell phones, T.V., video games, etc.)
- And so much more!
How You Can Celebrate World Book Day
Reading provides so many benefits to anyone who chooses to engage in the activity, and World Book Day is all about helping children in particular discover those benefits...and a love for reading. But, the Book Tokens are only handed out around the United Kingdom, and they already celebrated World Book Day in March. So, what can we do to celebrate today?
So many things! Here are just a few ideas:
- The theme for this year's World Book Day is "Share A Story". If you are a parent, guardian, or teacher of any kind, we encourage you to participate by sharing and reading a story with the children around you.
- Visit https://www.worldbookday.com/resources/ to download free lesson plans, activity sheets, recipes, book extracts, crafts, and discussion guides that you and your children can use to learn about books and stories.
- Take 10 minutes a day to sit down and read aloud with your child(ren). Reading together even for just a few minutes can have a huge impact.
- Give your child(ren) a new book that they can read and enjoy.
- Spend some time at the library to read new books and find ones to take home.
- Start or join a book club.
- Take a break during the work day to do some reading, or bring books to the office for a book swap.
Essential Oil Books
For those of you who are essential oil fans, we've got some fun literature for you to explore as part of World Book Day! Check out these books and downloads that we know you will love!
- 70 Ways To Use Essential Oils. This free download offers so many different ways for you to use essential oils in your daily life.
- Essential Oil Cheat Sheet. New to essential oils or trying to figure out the best way to use your oils? This free cheat sheet gives you different ideas on how to use 10 of the most common essential oils.
- 10 Essential Oils For The Cold and Flu Season. While we may be getting into the spring season, the cold and flu seems to come around all year. Keep you and your family healthy with this free guide!
- Spring Cleaning With Essential Oils. Any time you feel you need to give your home a deep clean, this free download will show you which oils are best to use and how to use them!
- Essential Oil Books. We are happy to offer a variety of books about essential oils! These books have everything from basic usage instructions to recipes to how you can use oils for natural healing, and so much more!
There are so many things you can do to celebrate books and reading! Whatever you choose, pick something that will ignite and feed your love for reading, and help a child to develop the same. Remember, reading is dreaming with eyes wide open!
Share your ideas with us! We would love to hear what you do to celebrate World Book Day!
References:
Bonfiglio, Chontelle. "Importance of Reading With Young Children: 10 Great Benefits." Bilingual Kidspot. 19 October 2017. https://bilingualkidspot.com/2017/10/19/benefits-importance-reading-young-children/