Good times

JOSEPH Foo, the father of two teenagers, has fond memories of the days when he read to his children, describing the moments as “some of the best times spent with them when they were young”.

He and his wife are firm believers that it is never too early to start kids on books, so Faith and Peace were read to even before they could string together sentences of their own.

“We started to read to them when they were around a year old; we learned not to underestimate their capability to understand what we read to them,” he says.

Joseph, 50, a creative director, laughs while recalling how he would pretend to be reading at home just to set a good example to his kids.

“It was our ‘evil plan’ to get them interested in books and to be able to think independently by sometimes pretending that we are reading when in the presence of our children. To be honest, I do not read as much as I am supposed to, but both my wife and I know that given the choice, we would rather invest in books than TV or digital devices,” he says.

Joseph considers these reading sessions to be a bonding opportunity between father and son. It is also a good way to develop not just reading habits but also their ability to stay focused, he says.

Joseph and his wife, Naomi Tan, 48, read lots of Bible stories to their children, and now that they are 17 and 15, Faith, the eldest, is a huge fan of fiction and Peace will devour anything to do with data/information and other nonfiction titles.

“C.S. Lewis remains one of our favourites,” Joseph shares.

And guess what? Joseph still reads to his teenagers – just not entire books.

“Now whenever I find words of wisdom, inspirational quotes or scripture that are relevant to the situation we find ourselves in, I read those out loud to them.”