World Book Day – a great opportunity to read together again!

The virtues of reading with children has been documented numerous times over recent years and studies say that you can’t start too young!

Reading to infants is one of the most effective ways of building the language neural connections in a child’s brain and aids cognitive development. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, can also boost vocabulary and reading skills years later.

Besides the academic and developmental benefits, reading to your child is a wonderful way to bond, fosters intimacy and well-being. Reading together is also calming and the child benefits immensely from feeling loved and receiving positive attention in this way.

World Book Day is a charity initiative, designated by UNESCO as a worldwide celebration of books and reading that is now marked in over 100 countries around the globe. In the UK, World Book Day takes place on Thursday 7th March (elsewhere World Book and Copyright Day is held on 23rd April) and hundreds of British schools will be taking part through writing workshops, by dressing up as characters from their favourite stories and lots of reading and story related activities!

Lots of publishers and authors take part in World Book day in the UK by releasing a selection of short stories, costing just 1GBP each, with the aim of helping children to develop a love of reading. For those of us living on the Côte d’Azur, we can of course still purchase these books via Amazon.co.uk ;-)

The official World Book Day site offers some great FREE resources for children as well as some inspiring videos and there are also some FREE audiobooks available to listen to online too!

The KidooLand team will also be joining in with the World Book Day in various ways this week so keep an eye on our facebook community group page for news about this and for full details about all the activities your children enjoy at the various English is Fun, Playgroup and other classes each week.