Parents urged to spend time reading with children

Parents should spend time reading with their children to help them develop their reading skills.
This was the gist of the First Jeddah Reading Forum organized by the Kadi and Ramadi publishing house in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture and Information and the Saudi Art and Cultural Society in Jeddah on Sunday.
“Reading is part of our culture. It is very important to foster a reading culture at homes, as it helps in defining the personality of children,”  said Sultan Al-Bazie, who spoke at the forum on behalf of Culture and Information Minister Abdul Aziz Khoja.
“It is our duty to keep our culture and heritage alive and to transfer its values to our children. We must take such initiatives to provide them with an atmosphere cultivated by culture," he said.
Jalil Batterjee, chairman of the Wad company and founder of Dar Al-Zikar schools, said that parents should spend at least one hour daily reading books with their children to foster their interest in reading.
Al-Bazie also emphasized the use of the Internet for reading books and understanding them. He stressed that parents, especially mothers, should establish reading corners at home to develop the reading habits in children.
He said the Ministry of Culture and Information is planning to launch a TV channel for children with cultural values and to arrange a national cultural program. 
"The Ministry of Culture and Information is planning to establish a special committee to look into the matter of creating cultural activities for children,” he said.
Also present to inaugurate the six-day forum on Sunday were former minister of petroleum Hisham Nazer and former minister of Haj and Information Iyad Madani.
Abdullah Al-Tazi, president of Saudi Arabian Society for Culture and Arts in Jeddah, said the purpose of the forum was to provide the public, particularly the children, different ways of enjoying reading and realizing the importance of books.
“With the help of Kadi and Ramdi founder and director Thuraya Batterjee, we launched this forum to enhance the culture of reading books," Tazi said.