The importance of reading to children

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- Christine Durfee was faced with the challenge of maintaining a close relationship with her grandson who lived 1,500 miles away.

"I don't want him to, you know, not have me," Durfee said. In the world of technology, Durfee got the Idea to record herself reading books to him so his parents could play them at their leisure.

Durfee says they watched the videos every night, but to their surprise they weren't the only ones who took a liking to "Stories with Mema". In 2 weeks the video has 28 million views.

"The comments that I was receiving or that we were receiving because she got them to was so sad. There were adults that are subscribers to my channel because they said I was never read to as a child, and this is fulfilling something deep in me that I didn't know I had this need," Durfee said.

After reading many books she decide to write her own. Durfee, who has a PhD in counseling education and supervision took this opportunity to write books that talked about feelings and emotion.

The first book in her series is called "Tummy Heart Commotion: When Dawson Meets Dood" .

Durfee says children in general really struggle with expressing their feelings, they know that they're feeling something and so they will demonstrate that by acting out. Her goal is to spark conversations about processing feeling between the child and the person reading the book.

Durfee is now calling on others to join her movement "I've started something called Mema Warriors. I'm putting little shorts up about making call to action, of all these Mema's to become "Meme Warriors", really for their children's development and development that also means mental health."

For more on how to become a Mema warrior or to view stories visit Stories with Mema.