If the researches of recent years show that reading skills are deteriorating in Latvia as a whole, then the same cannot be said about six-year-old Luīzi Veigelti from Turlava. When the head of the Turlava library gathered information about who were the most diligent readers last year, it was a surprise that Louise had read the most books – fifty – among the students. Her mother says that her daughter reads independently, but then both discuss what they have read.
Six-year-old Luise often walks with her mother to the library in Turlava. Last year, she read 50 books taken from here, which was the most in the group of students up to the 9th grade.
Louise started to become interested in reading when she was three years old. Mom admits that books are always available at home, even if she reads a lot herself. She is an English teacher at Turlava elementary school. “Once, when they started learning these letters, then, of course, we had to say – Louise, let’s go and read. But now it is already the period when she wants to, takes the book herself, reads, sometimes even goes to another room and reads by herself. A skill that I also train at home, the child has to understand what he has read,” says Louise’s mother, Zane Weigelte.
Sandra Brantevica, head of the Turlava parish library, admits that she organizes various activities for the joy of reading for school-age children as well. In promoting reading at a younger age, it is often not only important how the book looks, but also whether the letters are easy to read. “There are popular publishing houses that publish beautifully illustrated books, but – oh my! Books have such letters in different fonts, italic, crooked, there are also small letters. I also evaluate this before buying books.”
Speech therapist Adrija Brantevica emphasizes that reading also promotes writing skills, improves thinking, memory, imagination, attention and concentration. Interest in reading can be created gradually so that the child likes it. “See some words, syllables, recognize them somewhere in the neighborhood and show that this thing is useful. Shopping lists and adding shopping baskets, say, are also a great way to encourage both reading and writing.”
This time Louise goes home with two books. Approximately 58% of the parish population visit the Turlava library. Currently, there are more than 4,300 books, 1,024 of which are for children.
