How Libraries Can Become Valuable Learning Resources for Children

Every summer vacation, many parents start to worry. Their children spend day after day at home playing on their phones, watching short videos, and sometimes playing games. Homework gets pushed back until the final week, and more than two months of vacation seem to disappear without being put to good use.

Signing up for tutoring classes can be expensive. In some places, a single month can cost at least 2,200 yuan, and the cost becomes even higher when other activities and training programs are added. More importantly, children may not even want to attend. Summer camps can easily cost several thousand or even tens of thousands of yuan, and there is no guarantee that they will actually be effective.

There is, however, a place that is free, cool, and can quietly help children become better learners: the library. Taking my child to the library during summer vacation is one of the most worthwhile investments in education I have ever made.

Of course, parents who have to work may need to plan their visits differently. If you cannot take your child to the library during the day, you can always go in the evening. The library in our area is open until 9 p.m. and is closed on Mondays.

Zhu Xi, a Neo-Confucian scholar of the Southern Song Dynasty, wrote in his work Xun Xue Zhai Gui about three important aspects of reading: the mind, the eyes, and the mouth.

Children today are exposed to short videos and mobile games from an early age, and their attention is often divided into smaller and smaller pieces. Taking a long time to finish homework, struggling to stay focused, and reaching for a phone whenever they have free time can all be signs that a child needs more opportunities to develop sustained attention.

At the library, the atmosphere naturally encourages children to be quiet and read. It is very different from being at home, where a child may spend less than ten minutes doing homework before getting up to use the bathroom, then get up again twenty minutes later for a drink of water, sit in all kinds of positions, and think about using a phone as soon as the homework is finished.

At the library, when you look around, you will hardly see any children using their phones. In fact, sometimes it is the parents who are checking their phones.

When I first started taking my child to the library, he could barely sit and read. After less than half an hour, he would say that he wanted to go home. I did not criticize him, but I also did not immediately leave just because he wanted to. Instead, I told him that we would go home after I finished my book. He had little choice but to stay with me and read. Eventually, I realized that he really could calm down and concentrate on a book.

At first, he could barely tolerate staying there. Then he gradually progressed to twenty minutes, then an hour, and eventually he could stay for most of the day. Sometimes I am the one who wants to go home, but he tells me that he wants to finish the book he is reading first. Now, whenever we arrive at the library, he already knows exactly which section he wants to go to.

I have noticed that since we started going to the library, my child has become more focused, and his teacher has noticed the same change.

A library can be one of the best places for children to develop concentration. When children spend time in an environment where people are quietly focused on reading and learning, they naturally absorb some of that atmosphere. It can be much more effective than constantly telling them at home to sit still and study carefully.

The library can also help children develop a lasting reading habit. The Greek philosopher Epictetus once said that if you want to develop a certain habit, you should put it into practice, while if you want to avoid developing a habit, you should stay away from it. To change an existing habit, you can replace it with another activity.

Children often do not like reading simply because there is no reading atmosphere at home. If Dad is constantly scrolling through his phone and Mom is watching short dramas while telling the child to read a book, it is hardly surprising that the child does not want to read.

I have a former high school classmate who stopped working after having two children and devoted her time to taking care of her family. Starting when her children entered first grade, she took them to the library every weekend. They did not go there to do homework. They went there to read.

Her children would read in the children's section while she read in the adult section. They would stay for most of the day, sometimes even the entire day, and then borrow some books to take home. As a side note, the library in our area allows people to borrow books for free as long as they have a library card. Each person can borrow up to 15 books, which must be returned within two months. If the books are returned late, points are deducted.

One of her children is now in the eighth grade. The child's Chinese language grades have consistently been among the top ten in the entire grade. Writing is especially strong, and the child's essays are often used as examples for other students.

Many parents have asked her why her child's reading comprehension and writing skills seem to be noticeably stronger than those of many classmates. My former classmate says she has never forced her child to read. Instead, she simply takes the child to the library regularly. Little by little, reading became a normal part of the child's life. Reading comprehension naturally improved, and when it came time to write an essay, the child had plenty of ideas and material to draw from.

A saying attributed to Confucius in the Hanshu, or Book of Han, expresses a similar idea: habits formed during childhood can become as natural as one's own nature and can influence a person's behavior and thinking over time.

When children are surrounded by people reading at the library, they naturally tend to read as well. Going once or twice may not make much difference, and even going for a week may not produce an obvious change. But after a month, or after an entire summer vacation, the effect can become much more noticeable. Reading can gradually become part of a child's everyday life, and that habit can stay with them for years. In that sense, it can be more valuable than many tutoring programs.

Going to the library together can also strengthen the relationship between parents and children.

What parents do often has a greater influence than what they simply tell their children to do.

Many parents say that they are too busy with work to spend much time with their children. But quality time is not necessarily about how many hours you spend together. What matters is what you actually do during that time.

I have experienced this myself. Because I am usually busy with work, when I spent time with my child on weekends, we would either go to a playground or I would give him an iPad and let him study on his own. Although we were physically together, we hardly communicated with each other.

Later, I started taking my child to the library on weekends. At first, he only wanted to read light children's books such as Mi Xiao Quan and Jiang Xiao Ya. Eventually, he became interested in the Sai Lei Three-Minute series. I have not yet found the Sai Lei Three-Minute books about Water Margin and Dream of the Red Chamber, and my child says he has only read up to the fifth volume of Journey to the West and has not seen several of the others, which he thinks is a shame. Besides those books, he also enjoys comic adaptations of the other Four Great Classical Novels, as well as The Classic of Mountains and Seas, Detective Conan, and collections of Chinese idiom stories.

When he comes across something he does not understand, he will sometimes quietly ask me about it while reading. The last time he came across the Chinese idiom “买椟还珠,” he asked me what it meant. I explained the meaning of the idiom and told him the story behind it. This not only made it easier for him to remember, but also gave us a good opportunity to talk.

The library can provide children with a positive example while also creating opportunities for parents and children to spend meaningful time together. A strong parent-child relationship does not come from taking children to the most expensive places. Sometimes, it comes from simply doing something meaningful together. Sitting side by side in the quiet atmosphere of a library can be worth more than a thousand words.

Zhuge Liang wrote in his well-known Admonitions to His Son, “Cultivate yourself through tranquility and build character through simplicity. Without a calm and detached mind, it is difficult to establish clear aspirations; without tranquility, it is difficult to make progress toward distant goals.”

The best atmosphere for a family is not determined by how large a house is, how many connections the family has, or how much money they have. What matters is whether there is a love of reading and learning within the home.

Taking a child to the library may seem like a small thing, but its influence can be far-reaching. It can strengthen the relationship between parents and children, while the concentration and reading habits children develop at the library can become valuable assets that stay with them throughout their lives.

Take some time to visit the library with your child. Let your child grow up surrounded by books and discover the joy of learning through reading.