Soft skills and children's books
Being a parent of two, I engage with my kids in various activities. During my kids’ early days, night reading was a fun activity for all! My wife did most of the reading — growing older mom became their favorite reader and I was excluded 🙁. Nowadays, my kids are old enough to handle their own reading so we dropped that habit.
What intrigued me reading children’s books was the clarity of the messages in every sentence and drawing! Identifying a pure message and mindset in a few words is striking. Just enough words for a kid to understand.
Besides the message clarity, the highlighted values and skills are what we value in a working environment. Patience. Empathy. Persistence. Thinking differently. Equality. Teamwork. Reading these books felt like, I was wired to use these soft skills as a child yet somehow — in the middle of my life — I forgot to do so.
Here’s a list of books with the skills I’ve identified:
- Grufallo, by Julia Donaldson is highlighting the importance of courage and thinking differently. A mouse is roaming a dark forest countering larger carnivorous animals by saying the right words 🤯
- Elmer the Patchwork Elephant, by David McKee is sharing the importance of being yourself and being open about it. Especially the first book of the series talks about the impact that an individual has. I can still see bits and pieces of Elmer on my boy.
- Splat the Cat, by Rob Scotton talks about facing something new and having the power of your opinion. This was my girl’s favorite book for a few years.
- Pip and Posy series, by Axel Scheffler. I recall The Super Scooter from the series talking about learning, sharing, and courage.
- The littlest Lighthouse keeper to the rescue, by Daniel Howarth, talks about empathy, persistence, and exploration. The illustrations in this book are amazing too!
Inspiration and growth can come from everywhere! Reading children’s books certainly hit a cord for me. Essentially, all we can do is keep our minds open to external signals for growth. There are plenty of prompts in our daily lives— regardless of age 😉.
This is a subset of books that I can recall from the top of my head. I’m sure there are way more! If there’s a children’s book that strokes a cord with you please share! If you are an aunt or uncle, grab your niece or nephew’s toddler book just out of curiosity 🙂!
Sidenote: Using Hemingway Editor to secure easy reading, and this post scored grade 6. This means that a 6-year-old can easily read this piece. How fitting 🙃!
