Kindergarten is the time when children become more aware and curious about people, places, and things. Their social world now includes others outside the family.

They are now ready for stories that help them try on different personalities and assist them over difficult stages. They need stories whose sole purpose is fun, entertainment, and enjoyment. Kindergartners enjoy seeing characters that take risks, gain control over their surroundings, and where all ends in happy ever after. Unlike preschool books, these stories have a beginning, middle, and end.

This is an exciting age for Kindergartners, full of new and exhausting information. Don't push for learning to read just yet. Listening to stories is where reading begins.

There are two categories of classics: early classics like the fairy tales of Andersen, Grimm, and Perault; and modern classics like Charlotte’s Web and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Both were written by people who never lost their love of childhood. Classics should make a major contribution to a child’s education, merriment, and appreciation of literature. Many good stories provide clear standards of right and wrong, show the ethics of human behavior, and evoke natural and wholesome laughter. Classics contain those unique qualities that surpass time and appeal to listeners and readers of every generation.

A classic is the rare book that has a special element, which enables it to endure the test of time and appeal to children from every generation. It stands out because it has the ability to touch the heart and cross the boundaries of culture, nationality, religion, race, gender, and status.

Classics should make a major contribution to a child’s education, merriment, and appreciation of literature. Classics should provide clear standards of right and wrong, show the ethics of human behavior, and evoke wholesome laughter.

A sense of honor and value surround great literature. Laughter, pain, hunger, satisfaction, love, and joy are found in classics. When our children become familiar with this kind of writing, they have a foundation for making comparisons. Not everything they read will be excellent, but they will know a story’s possibilities.

Read stories in their original versions, not the watered-down ones without any drama of life. They may retell the classic stories, but the basic elements that make the stories classics are omitted.

With the influx of new books for children flooding the market each year, old favorites are in danger of being crowded out. Generations of children are missing the opportunity of listening to classical children’s literature. This is unfortunate because classics are the cornerstone to building a life-long relationship with literature.

Children hear stories on at least three different levels: intellectual, emotional, and social. Their listening skills are at least two full years ahead of their reading levels.

Around the eighth grade, the listening levels and reading levels converge. Therefore, children can listen to, understand, and enjoy books that are too difficult for them to read independently. These stories are needed because they are far more exciting, enriching and challenging than anything children could read on their own. These are the stories that eventually raise reading levels.

Sadly, many parents stop reading aloud when their children begin to read for themselves. Parents should realize that children who listen to books that are beyond their reading skills will be introduced to an increased variety of words and the complex structure of language patterns.