“Kids, this week’s wi-fi password is …” Dear Parents,
How often have you reproached your kids for spending too much time online? Some version of:
“Instead of sitting with your eyes glued to your cellphone, why don’t you read a nice book! Books are those weird objects that you can find in the library.”
And so the complaints and arguments begin.
Smartphones completely engage young people … they’re where kids enter social media and chat with friends. The wi-fi connection is their magic key to happiness.
Read more:
Should younger kids have smartphones? Bill Gates doesn’t think so
If you are looking for a clever way to bring your kids closer to reading and get them off WhatsApp, look to the example of this ingenious mom who found an original way to educate her children on how to use the internet wisely. Her idea, which has gone viral on the web, was also recounted in the Italian edition of the Huffington Post:
“This week’s wifi password is the color of Anna Karenina’s dress in the book. I said the book, not the movie!! Good luck! Mom” she wrote on a slip of paper.
The only way her {high-school age) kids could find the password for the the internet connection was by reading Tolstoy’s book.
It’s not bad as a trick to make the kids fall in love with reading and get their much-desired wi-fi if the answer is correct!
The ultimate destination is the experience of sailing through literature, but one small scavenger hunt in the fantastic sea of a literary work is a great way to get them started.
Read more:
Imagination in the child is powerful. Reading and laughing and love are essential in our lives.
And who doesn’t like scavenger hunts?
By the way, have you read Anna Karenina?
This article was originally published in the Italian edition of Aleteia and has been translated and/or adapted here for English speaking readers.
