“Creating a moment of reading together is creating a moment of communication with the children”

Beatriz: I always recommend choosing it together with them and not interfering in their decisions. It is also interesting to do some work prior to buying a book and that is to go to libraries to check which may be your favorites and which may not, so that when purchasing one we can have a clearer idea of your tastes.

B: When they are very young they are attracted to textures and colors, and as they get older they pay attention to the details of the illustrations, and the content, of course. And there comes a time when they become mini literary critics and begin to pay close attention to the construction of sentences, and how some writings better capture their attention than others. The motivation they receive when we tell them about it also has an influence, of course!

B: The space is not important at all, although the fact that they have the books within their reach, for example, is. If they have a beautiful reading corner, but to reach a book they have to ask you for help because they can't reach it, part of the charm is lost. With my daughters I have read on buses, in parks, on the beach, on the bed, lying on the floor... the place is the least of it.

B: Normally we associate reading time with going to bed, but I always say that the profession of many parents prevents them from being at that time. Maybe they're on-call surgeons, flight attendants, or firefighters, or they travel a lot and aren't here at night. We can scratch moments in the afternoon, when they return from school, or during the weekend, but reading with them is a great learning experience for children and adults.

B: Yes, I guess so, but for years my daughters haven't seen me pick up a book as an adult, because when I did they were already asleep, and the act of reading them and reading with I think it has been more influential and decisive for them to enjoy reading.

B: I think spending time with family is good, and sadly we don't have all the time in the world to do it, so we have to “create” those moments so that the day doesn't go by between work, mobile and computer and let's say, Have I talked to my children today?, because it sounds exaggerated but the reality is that it happens, and more often than we think. Creating a time to read together is also creating a time to communicate with our children, listen to them, have them tell us things about their day because something in the book reminds them... there may be families who prefer board games, or any other activity, but yes, you definitely have to have special moments every day.

B: Each family handles this issue in the best possible way, and I think that my advice can only be applied to our family dynamics… in any case, for me the solution was to do without television Monday to Friday, and turn it on to watch a movie with the family. We only have a tablet that I use for work and for them to watch a movie during long trips if they feel like it, but it is not a "toy" or entertainment. Setting an example is also important... I try to disconnect when they come home from school and not pick up the phone again until they fall asleep, and if one day I don't do it, the girls are the first to scold me 😉

B: Absolutely. I am not a fan of the digital book, although I can understand its practicality for some people. In the case of children's albums, for me there is no possible discussion... the feeling of opening a book, turning its pages, touching its illustrations, treasuring it... Not to mention that, at a cerebral level, the simple exercise of turning pages when children they are babies generates super important neural connections at the level of coordination, something that can never be done with the digital book.

Family here is a ranking of Beatriz's 5 favorite children's books:

• Good night moon
• Caramel Pink
• Where the Wild Things Are
• Juliet be still
• Let's go bear hunting

Well, we ran to the Library to see if we could find the ranking books. Have you read them?

We could go on talking for hours with Beatriz, but the best thing is that you pay attention to her posts as she shares hyper-interesting content through all her channels. Her blog: www.beatrizmillan.com Her Instagram: @beatrizmillan And join the family reading movement using the hashtag #hoyleemos

Family, here we are today, we hope you enjoyed reading it as much as we did writing it. Beatriz has enlightened us in more than one response and filled with enthusiasm. Dads and moms there are children more or less related to reading, but the truth is that we can do a lot to feed their curiosity and desire to explore this fantastic and creative world of children's literature. If you first fall in love with children's books, they surely will too.

Happy book day everyone! Let's see if we soon publish our story in book format, a project we have had for a long time.

Arrivederciiii