Best Results Organizing

There’s something special about parents or grandparents reading stories aloud, a tiny human nestled warmly in the lap of a loving grownup as they turn the pages together and delight in a new story. Sometimes, the tales are as soft as the voice of the lady who says hush in Goodnight, Moon. Other times, the laughter is as infectious as this viral sensation of the Scottish grandmother reading The Wonky Donkey by Craig Smith. (Seriously, I dare you to not laugh along.)

Reading to and with children is essential for their emotional and cognitive well-being. The bevy of benefits range from imparting a love of learning to developing children’s imaginations to building language skills and empathy, and so much more:

• Reading With Your Child
• The Importance of Reading Aloud
• 10 Benefits That Highlight the Importance of Reading for Young Children
• Why Reading Aloud To Kids Helps Them Thrive
• The Benefits of Reading Aloud To Your Kids
• 10 Reasons To Read With Children 

There’s even a podcast devoted to the concept, aptly entitled the Read-Aloud Revival Podcast!

Children love stories, and there’s a comfort in hearing the same stories over and over. Parents bemoan having to read Green Eggs and Ham until their minds are numb, but in a world where so much is beyond their knowledge and understanding, children delight in being able to anticipate what is coming and having their expectations met. Adults may be bored by reruns, but children are soothed by tales twice told.

We’ve talked before about how to reduce book clutter without hampering our love of reading. (It’s hard to believe that Paper Doll‘s 6-part Reducing Book Clutter series, including a post on how to reduce children’s book clutter, was all the way back in 2010. Sadly, many of those children’s book rental options have vanished in our increasingly digital world, so watch for new posts in the coming year on ways to inspire reading without building a library addition onto your house.) However, we’ve never looked at the issue of organizing for reading when the grownup and the tiny human are not in the same place.

In the days before the internet, if tiny humans and their big people were separated at story time, a telephone had to suffice, but it never felt the same. If you’ve ever watched a toddler try to maintain a telephone conversation for more than a few minutes, you understand why. 

When parents travel for work or are deployed in the military, when moms or dads no longer live in the same homes as their kids, when grandparents are far away or beloved babysitters go off to college, it’s harder to connect over a good story.

With the advent of Facetime, Skype, and Facebook video chat, there came all manner of ways to read a story in front of the computer or iPhone camera and show the pages to the little one on the other end. Of course, tinier tots are still less likely to stay engaged, and if you’re not practiced at imitating kindergarten teachers, it’s hard to hold a book so that your mini-audience can see both you and the book clearly, and for you (or Gramps) to see the book and the tot simultaneously. Now, however, there are apps that take this process one step beyond.
 
READEO 
 

Chicago-based Readeo has created “BookChatting,” which combines a Skype-like video chat with the opportunity to co-read a book. So whether a loved one is deployed in the military or just on a business trip, big people and their tiny humans can see one another’s faces and share a story on the screen. During a BookChat, the pages of the story appear on the computer or device screen. Participants can see, hear, and talk to one another through video chat windows at the bottom of the screen, and either participant in a BookChat can turn the pages of the book, creating an interactive story time experience.

Readeo has a growing library of books, mainly for toddlers and very young readers, selected by a former children’s book reviews editor for Publisher’s Weekly. Personally, I’m intrigued by Does A Camel Cook? and The Ugly Vegetables. (For all Paper Doll knows, camels cook ugly vegetables!) Readeo claims that thanks to this highly interactive experience, its users report that BookChats “last almost 10 minutes longer per session than [on] Skype” and that 9 out of 10 of their users say BookChatting is better at capturing children’s attention than using Skype due to the interactive nature of the storybook combined with video and audio.

Membership is a pricey $9.99/month (or slightly discounted $99.99/year) after a 14-day free trial, but friends and family of Readeo members can use the app as guests at no cost. 

 
CARIBU 

Caribu considers itself “Facetime meets Kindle…for kids.” The educational ecosystem provides an “engaging livestream, shared-screen experience – in a carefully designed, curated, and secure platform.” 

The in-app library contains hundreds of books, in seven languages, from leading children’s publishers, as well as educational workbooks in which children and adults use together in real time to read and draw. Child profiles in the system allow books to be personalized, and a story guide pointer works in real time to help children follow along in the book. Not only can children (and grownups) read, but they can draw “on” the books (via the screen) in real time as well.

Available for iOS and Android in 148 countries, Caribu offers video calling, but also provides an audio-only fallback for times when a user is in a low-bandwidth location. The app itself is free, but an all-access purchase is $6.99/month. Up to six family members are able to use the app with iOS family sharing enabled. (It’s not clear how many users can be registered for the Android version. 

Gift subscriptions are available for 3-, 6-, and 12-month periods (and are currently available at discounted holiday rates. Caribu provides free subscriptions to active duty military personnel.
 

ROOTZ 

For our European readers, there’s Rootz, which combines multiple functions in one app. At its heart, the Dutch-run Rootz is an interactive app designed to connect family and friends so that they can read children’s books “together” while located in different places. There are currently over 100 books in the Rootz app, and the in-app bookstore includes books in English as well as Spanish, French, German, Dutch, Japanese, Chinese, and Russian, geared for children from infants to age 12.

Rootz also offers the ability to play educational games – there are currently about 50 available – or share photos during a video conferencing session, and there’s a calendaring function to schedule the sessions (for those busy, overscheduled grandchildren).

Right now, each linked family/group can include up to nine people, whom you can invite via email directly from inside the app. Currently, the video calling sessions can include up to three people, but Rootz anticipates upgrading to allow up to six users concurrently. 

The iOS-only app comes with a limited number of built-in books and games, with in-app purchases possible. (There’s a child-lock to ensure that little ones don’t go wild book-and-game spending sprees.) It’s not available for download in the US, and is only available for iPads; although the site mentions plans to make the app available on other tablets, it’s been a few years since the FAQ has been upgraded. Paper Doll advises trying out the free version to see if your child enjoys the experience before further exploring your Rootz.
 

 
Whether you read in-person or from a distance, know that reading with the children in your life will help them lead fuller lives, socially, emotionally, and intellectually. What could be more organized?