MyPedia Reader : Stories by Children for Children!

Time to encourage Innovative visions, Productive dreams and Creative minds!

It has been so aptly said,

“Every Child is an artist, the problem is staying an artist when you grow up” – Pablo Picasso

Leave children to get bored for some time and then you’ll see how the creativity arises out of them. They do it because they look for the magic and involve their innocent imaginations. Inculcating Creativity in a child is as important as education. Rather a creative child has an imaginative and experimental learning which is far more valuable for the cognitive development.

“Child prodigy, Adora Svitak, says the world needs ‘childish’ thinking: bold ideas, wild creativity and optimism. She says kids don’t think about limitations, they just think of good ideas.

And yes this is the reason why Kids are more confident, and creative compared to what adults are. Creativity feeds the soul and it helps creation of a  better future and better world. Current education systems do not foster more of natural creativity. And this is the reason why kids minds and hearts get laden with the course books as they progress, rather than imagining, dreaming and giving their thoughts a creative life.

And, this is why we need to promote vision and imagination as kids grow. We need to have more confidence in them and support them. This world needs more of Junior artists, Child authors, Junior Scientists, Lil think-tankers to imagine an incredible future generation.

Genesis of MyPedia Reader Storybooks :

To motivate our lil champs, not only in dancing , but also in the above mentioned creative streams, Pearson India gave birth to “MyPedia Reader”, a book by the Children and for the children. As they say “ It is a learning solution to sustain and develop the innate 

1. Imagination,

2. Creativity and

3. Critical thinking in children. And it promotes young authors and young illustrators”.

It is a serious endeavour from Pearson, to provide an environment, which allows them to nurture, cultivate and grow their innate creativity. It is a platform to showcase how beautiful their talents and imaginations can be, to the world and motivate the goodness.

Sounds exciting?

Let’s shake hands with “MyPedia Reader”, from Pearson :

Pearson India organized a contest – MyPedia Reader Creative writing Contest 2017, wherein they received more than 1500 stories from all across the country. These stories were then judged by the jury of 3 panelists, who themselves are renowned names, associated with Children Story telling and writing. And then came the MyPedia Reader storybook, wherein the stories, illustrations are all done by the children and its purpose is to ignite similar creativity in the young readers of MyPedia.

Benefits of MyPedia Reader Story Books:

1. It encourages confidence in the young creative minds and thus helps in aspiring other children who read these books. Looking at the peers giving such amazing stories, stimulates the grey matter and imaginations of readers and entails them to craft their work as well. It thus encourages peer to peer learning and skill development.

2. Kids have the best creativity in this world and to supplement this, there are some more interesting sections in the book as :

• Meeting the Authors : Knowing the authors helps the readers make their start more relatable. It creates an instant connection that these stories have been written by children, “just like them”. Readers are none different than what these young authors are and they too can write stories hidden in their hearts and minds.
• Scribbling Pages : After each story, there are some blank pages to scribble up the thoughts, ideas, words, questions, young readers might get while they are engrossed in reading the stories. They can refer to those points later to get the clarification done or explore & learn new things.
• Inspiration Wall : Well, believe me, a child gets a healthy motivation from another child only. Forget comparison, develop motivation. And this is the purpose behind “Inspiration wall”. It talks about the children who have some exceptional achievements in their names at a very young age. It helps children aim high and give fuel to their ambitions.
• Game Zones : How sweet can it be, when our budding minds can find fun games between the pages of a book? So these books have some games which focus on developing creative stories and other focus on strengthening vocabulary. Fun with learning, the best way to engage kids.
• Prompts : There are various prompts shared to think and write. Some prompts (posed as questions) triggers a deep thinking in children while other story writing prompts focus on creating and practising story writing. These are basically a set of few lines, which can then be developed into complete story.
• Checklists and charts : These help kids know the story writing process and thus improves these skills in the young readers.

3. Since these stories have originated from different cultures, and varied geographies from all around India, the ultimate essence of the stories is indeed diverse and culturally rich. They are exposed to various genres and writing styles. Young readers can relate to these imaginations similar to them of multiple genres.

4. It also enhances the love of reading, which is of utmost importance for children. Since, it has all the imaginations, interesting scripting, directly written from their peers with similar thinkings, it indeed encourages reluctant readers. Also, it is in English language, which further helps in improving the vocabulary and opens a pandora box of new words for the young readers.

Workshop by Pearson :

An amazing workshop cum launch event was conducted by Pearson team, with the young audiences and young authors of MyPedia Readers Story books. Have a look at their live video at Pearson’s FB page and more photos here. While the genesis of these story books was shared with the audiences, creative young authors were there to unveil Volume I,II,III of the MyPedia Reader Storybooks at the event. It encouraged children to hone their creative skills, come out and give a chance to their story telling abilities and gain creative expressions.

A mama’s verdict of this initiative :

I think, this has been one of the best concept wherein the young minds have been nurtured and given a platform to showcase their creative talents. Learning can indeed be fun in the way of reading story books. And what better than reading what these young minds think and imagine. A really unique collection of stories, which I think, every household should buy, not just for reading, but for developing a love for creativity and inspiring kids in the house to get up and hone their skills.

BBye,

Happy Reading!