The Mind's Eye and the Story
An excellent time for the development of the child is "story time." Have him use his imagination and make mind's eye pictures while you are reading stories. The story book naturally becomes a picture book in the child's mind. When you are reading a story, stop occasionally and have him form his own picture of it. You will find that he can easily see little Red Riding Hood going down the road to her grandmother's house. Encourage this habit of mental picturing of all stories and rhymes read to the child.
This is a natural mental operation but the lack of knowledge of its importance and consequently the failure to continue it after we have learned to read is one of the great causes of our forgetting what we read so easily. If you will see to it that your child visualizes what you read to him, and as he learns to read for himself stops occasionally to picture what he has read, he will develop a wonderful memory along this line. He will study easily, retain accurately and make more progress with less effort than any child who does not visualize and is forced to depend upon repetition.