Reading a bedtime story to your child is pretty important. It helps them recognize pictures, words, and will let them hear your voice right before they drift off to sleep. You get to know they’re sleeping peacefully, and they feel safe as they snooze. Of course, there are a lot of busy parents on the go who don’t get to spend as much time with their kids. Oftentimes they feel guilty, and try to find ways to make up for it.
While some ideas will help you and your kid stay close even if you’re far away, things like the Sparkup Reader will not. This will read your child’s bedtime story to them at a set speed with a professional voice actor reading it aloud. Of course, the idea is that you are supposed to record your own voice, or someone who your child knows so they can hear something familiar. The pitch is that this will help with reading skills, but it will really only make lazy parents lazier. Why record your own voice when you can download a more professional version with sound effects from their store? Not feeling up to story time? Pull out the Sparkup and have someone else do it. This is going to cost you $60, and it would be better spent on an item that will actually help them with reading rather than reading at them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=un462BQfsB0
Lazy parents won’t even think about a bedtime story. They will turn on TV and thus get rid of their little nuisances.
If a parent invests in reading, buying audiobooks, or recording for this Sparkup, that would be an offense to call such a parent lazy.
The author also seems to miss how the device works, by writing: “This will read […] at a set speed […].” That’s exactly wrong — it syncs to the page which is open, i.e it will read at the child’s own speed. Promoting independent thinking and book exploration. Or inter-dependency — if done together with a parent or a sibling.
Reading a bedtime story to your child isn’t only “pretty important”; it’s one of the MOST important things a parent can do! As the Head of Communications for Sparkup, I wanted to share some thoughts and facts with you and your readers.
Sparkup is great for those moments when families can’t read together – like when grandma and grandpa return home to Florida, or if dad is away on business. It can be used in many other fun and creative ways (http://goo.gl/TSNIGf). In addition, Sparkup lets kids read their favorite stories whenever they choose, encouraging independent reading and building confidence in their literacy skills. Parents can choose to either record stories themselves or, to mix things up, download professional recordings, some of which are read by the authors themselves – it’s their choice.
Please note: Sparkup is in no way, shape or form intended to serve as a substitute for a parent or loved one! Reading with your kids is crucial, and we encourage it at every possible moment to develop strong parent-child bonding. But sometimes you’re simply not home, your kids want to read on their own, or you’re looking to add another dimension of fun and creativity to the reading experience. That’s where Sparkup comes in!
Please visit our website to learn more – http://www.sparkupreader.com.
@caitlyn, do you consider Hallmark encourages lazy parenting as well?
http://www.hallmark.com/recordable-storybooks/