Want to raise kids who love to read? According to The Huffington Post, books keep your brain mentally stimulated. This mental stimulation is especially important for kids who are at the early stages of their brain development. Getting the right tools, like a reading app, can help make book lovers out of your kids. Here are 8 things you should know about reading apps:
Ease of Use
What you need to remember is this: The simpler it is, the more likely your kids will use it. The Tech Block says ease of use is vital in a reading app. That’s why it’s best to pick one that’s simple and user-friendly like the Nook kid’s reading app. Navigation is simple and doesn’t take more than a few tries to figure out. The design is also user-friendly so that’s a definite plus. It’s free to download so you and your kids can try out the system first to see if it’s ideal for you and your kids or not.
A Lot of Reading Materials
Your kids can explore different kinds of content with reading apps. From comics to counting books to stories, your kids won’t be limited in their choice of reading materials. The more choices they have, the higher the chance they’ll go for the reading app.
Organizational Features
One of the best things about reading apps is that they automatically categorize the books in your kids’ library. Don’t want the mess of having to put back those books on the shelves? With reading apps, you won’t have to clean up the books from around your kids’ room and put them back where they belong. It keeps all the books they love organized so you have more time for other things every day.
Efficient Reading
Another organizational advantage of reading apps is that it makes it easy for you to track down your children’s reading list. You can see which books they read the last time, which ones they stayed with the longest and which ones they abandoned after only a few minutes. That way, you know exactly what kinds of stories resonate with them, which ones to buy and which ones to skip.
Storage Options
Some tablets work well with SD cards, which offer you a cost-effective way to add some extra memory to the device. However, if you think the existing standard memory is already enough for all the books your kids intend to read this year, then hold off on that extra storage for now.
Environmentally Friendly
Because eBooks eliminate the need for massive amounts of paper, you get to encourage your kids to read without worrying that forests in many parts of the world are being cut down and decimated in order to supply paper for the publishing industry. eReaders, though, are changing that, reducing the need for paper and thus, saving plenty of trees in the process. So if you want to do your part to help preserve the environment for your kids and future generations of children who will love reading as much as you do, then going for tools like a reading app is the way to go. By creating a reading experience that doesn’t rely solely on paper, you get to promote literacy without adding adding to the destruction of the environment.
Free eBooks
According to SiteProNews, with reading apps came one of the best advantages for book lovers of all generations: free books! In the old days, you had to go to libraries to read books for free. But these borrowed. So you always had to give them back or you had to keep coming to the library to renew your permission slip. That used to take up so much time and energy. This time, though, you can download all the books you want—for yourself and your kids—and not pay a single cent. If you’ve always found yourself interested in the classics, the Internet is full of sites that offer you free downloads of these stories along with other books, content and media. That’s also works for children’s books. There are a lot of classics out there. You could download your old favorites and read these with your kids. Imagine how fun that storytelling session would be, seeing your kids fall in love with the same stories you did.
Reading Features
Reading apps often have a set of features unique to each one. But you more or less get a set of standard ones. The best of these features include interactive reading features. Sound, motion, color—all these enrich the reading experience for your kids. It’s not a stay against boredom. Great stories don’t need anything else than words to get through their audience. But having these elements in place adds to the fun factor, something your kids are sure to appreciate.
So there you have it, 8 things you should know about reading apps before you set out to pick one for your kids. As more and more reading apps populate the market, one thing you can look forward to are better reading apps—and reading solutions—in the future.
I live in a small Georgia town that you most likely have never heard of and I LOVE it! My house is more than full as I am a single mother of four & caregiver to my aging mother and uncle. Lover of all things Outlander. Goes to the beat of her own drum woman.
Sara Zielinski says
These are great tips on reading apps, thanks for them.
Janelle K. says
Always looking for good reading apps. Thanks for the info!
Raine says
Thank you for these great tips, there are so many apps out there it’s hard to navigate. I was a bookworm growing up (I still am ). I definitely want my kids to share my love of books.