Muhsin Kids was humbly established at home, with the intention to promote shared reading for young children, conducted by adults (by parents at home, and teachers at school). Shared reading has been proven to have tremendous beneficial effects on children’s language acquisition, knowledge and behaviours, as testified by Nur Aisyah binti Samsul Baharil, Managing Director of Muhsin Kids.
“Shared reading is a crucial component to help Malaysian children to improve the acquisition of English language. Consequently, they would be able to comprehend English better whether by reading or talking.” she shared with BabyTalk recently. The more stories children listen to, the more words they hear and the larger their vocabulary size becomes. Why does it matter, anyway? Well, evidently, Malaysian students do not seem to be able to attain reasonable English literacy even after going through 11 years of learning English in school (Naginder, 2006; Nor Hashimah Jalaludin, Norsimah Mat Awal & Kesumawati Abu Bakar, 2008). During tertiary education, many university students end up struggling in English proficiency.
“Just by reading to our children 15 minutes a day has been proven to solve the problem, given that these children are getting the chance to access high-quality yet fun books since birth. This awareness sparked an idea in me – I needed to help to provide Malaysian children with high quality books from all over the world, and promote read aloud activities at home and at schools,” Nur Aisyah revealed.
By importing two well-written children’s English Islamic books from the UK and sharing on social media about the importance of shared reading, Nur Aisyah went on to volunteer for reading aloud sessions at kindergartens and schools, as well as organizing book inspired programs and workshops for parents. Gradually, by God’s will, the idea of reading with children at home became well accepted by young parents. Now, Muhsin Kids offers more than 1000 titles of children’s books and is committed to provide those young readers with more great books they deserve.
“I didn’t expect my little initiative to turn into something this big. I was ecstatic to receive the news that Muhsin Kids won the Award as best Islamic Children’s Bookstore in the BabyTalk & MamaPapa Readers’ Choice Awards 2020. Receiving such an award had never crossed my mind. I feel honoured. However, in the same time, it reminded me to work harder to carry out Muhsin Kids’s vision and missions,” she continued, graciously.
“As providing good books is important to make avid readers out of children, it is one of our missions to ensure brilliant books produced by great authors and illustrators from all over the world, with both Islamic and non-Islamic content, are accessible to the children of Malaysia. However, we don’t only sell, but we consistently share and educate. We conduct workshops and reading sessions, and we invite our customers who have benefited from the process to share with others too.”
It’s been four years now since they began operating, and Nur Aisyah expressed her satisfaction in seeing more and more parents reading to their children and local kindergartens conducting read aloud sessions with their students. Many other interesting ideas are lined up for Muhsin Kids, including book-inspired merchandise and activities, en-route to realising a dream to being a central hub that supports children’s education and development needs in Malaysia, and South East Asia.
