7 Ways to Encourage Your Children to Read
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Photo Source: Cristina Thornburg
FishPapa and I are major bookworms. For years we lived without TV or VCR because we so much preferred reading. Our date nights were often spent browsing through Borders or talking about the books we were reading. He prefers theology and I prefer novels, so we’re good foils for one another. Recently, he read a memoir, which is close to a novel, and I’m getting ready to tackle a Bible commentary. Oh my word! We’re probably starting to look like each other, too!
Even though a television exists in our home today, we still love to read. And I’m so glad that our children do, too. So far, three boys know how to read and FishBoy5 is well on his way to learning. I am so excited! This homeschooling experiment is working! My children are literate – oh happy day!
I can’t say that we have any special tricks to having produced good readers, but I am so thankful that we have a family of bookworms.
Here are some things that I believe have helped us in this journey:
1. Read to your children early and often. My favorite pediatrician of all time, Dr. Patterson, always gave our babies board books at their six month visits. He was a firm believer in reading to children at an early age. I was always so impressed by his willingness to put his money where his mouth was. I’d heard this advice before, but I was often frustrated when my first born would tune out while I was reciting Go, Dog. Go! Eventually, I learned that “reading” to a baby is much different than reading to a toddler or to a preschooler. Sometimes, it involves just “reading” the pictures, or simply narrating what you see. Depending on the child’s personality, development, and attention span, you may find different kids wanting or needing different types of reading. FishBoy12 could listen, spellbound, to Saint George and the Dragon when he was only three. Yet, today FishBoy5 doesn’t really want to hear the story in its entirety. Be patient, try different things, and most importantly, continue to expose your kids to good books.
2. Make library day a regular event. This can be as simple as a 20 minute stop on errand day or elaborate as several hours spent browsing and reading and maybe attending a library-sponsored event, like storytime. There are some challenges to library trips, but with creative thinking, I think most parents can find a way to make it work. If it just seems impossible right now, take a breather for a few months and try again. Chances are you can request books online and then pick them up in a few days from your local branch. This should help keep a steady supply of reading material in the house.
3. Start a book collection. Whether you have a Barnes and Noble budget or simply a passion for browsing used book stores and thrift stores, establish a home library and find a tiny corner of your home where your kids can keep a few books of their own. This doesn’t need to be elaborate, but I think there is something sweet and comforting about a well-worn volume that a child can call his own. I began our book collection by ordering through Scholastic Books years ago. These are inexpensive, paperback books that are usually available in popular and classic titles. Many of the books I bought 10+ years ago are still serving us well.
4. Read books aloud as a family. This is not something that I remember from my own childhood, probably because I loved to find a quiet corner to read by myself. But, we’ve made this a family habit. Over the years, we’ve read 100s of books together as a family and kids — of all ages — enjoy this. In fact, FishPapa has been known to stop his home improvement project to listen better to my recitation of Old Yeller. If you need help in choosing good books or aren’t really sure what it means to read aloud to kids, check out The Read Aloud Handbook or Honey for a Child’s Heart.
5. Engage in book discussions and book recommendations with your kids. As your children grow older, they will want to read books on their own. We regularly have 30+ books checked out from the library. Since our oldest three children are all boys, they have similar book interests. It’s not uncommon for the same book to pass through three pairs of hands in the course of a week or two. This is the prime time for me to read the book as well. Then we can discuss it together, sharing what we liked, what we didn’t like, what we expected, what disappointed, etc. Often, the boys will give each other suggestions as to what to read next. It’s a wonderful way for us to engage in a story without being there all at the same time.
6. Make quiet reading a regular part of every day. When I taught high school we called this time during class, SSR (Silent, Sustained Reading). For some students, this was the only quiet block of time they might experience all day. Make sure this is a part of your home on a regular basis, if not everyday. In this season of our life, we often have reading time right at bedtime. FishKids need to be in bed at 8:30 but can read until 9. Find a pocket of time that works best at your house.
7. Demonstrate your love of reading to your kids. Read! Children learn what they live. If they see you value books and what you gain from reading, their interest will be piqued, and they will most likely follow suit. Make it a regular habit to have a good book going and share what you’re reading or what you hope to accomplish by reading a certain book. If you need some inspiration, join us each month as we’re booking it.
What do you do to encourage your kids to love books and reading?
And don’t forget about Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library where parents can sign up their kids to recieve free books from birth to 5 years old. I love Dolly and I love this program.
http://www.imaginationlibrary.com
A fellow bookworm
Thanks so much for this post, my son hates reading, so I liked some of your tips (of course some of them I do already and it doesn’t work) I’ll try anything, I love to read and it makes me sad that he hates it so much.
We have basically done all of the things listed in your post and are blessed to have two daughters who love reading as much as we do! Instead of date nights at Borders, we have family outings to Barnes & Noble and often look up used bookstores to visit when we’re out-of-town on vacation. If I need a quiet afternoon, we take a trip to the library in the morning and I can pretty much guarantee a couple of hours of silence!!
I’m also finding that a side benefit of reading is the development of their creative writing skills. My older daughter especially enjoys writing her own stories and seems filled with inspiration from all of the books she reads herself.
When I was pregnant I bought a book for my little baby, “What Does Baby See?” It is a book created by Begin Smart: Books for Brainy Babies. Is a a collection of pictures of animals that are done in black, red and white contrast – what babies can see best at first! Now that my daughter is 5 months old she loves holding the book and trying to turn the thick pages herself.
I’ve always been an avid reader. My husband? Not so much. Although, he has learned to enjoy reading since we married. I read every night in bed and that’s a habit he’s learned.
Two daughters…oldest one is a book worm. Youngest one? Not so much anymore. She loved books as a little girl and as a family, we’ve done everything you’ve suggested here. She’s 13 and hates the “assigned book reading” in school. I’m hoping that this is just a teenage phase she’s going through and that eventually she’ll come back around.
I love to read. In fact, I rarely do not have a book in hand…I’ve even been known to read while washing dishes (that is what cookbook stands were made for, right?). I am a librarian (although I don’t work outside of the home right now) and we definitely take advantage of our local library. Storytime is one of our favorite weekly activities.
My daughter (3 1/2) has definitely caught the reading bug. She can’t read to herself yet (although, I think she’s pretty close) but she will sit and be read to for hours. Sometimes I have to cut her off if we are going to accomplish anything else in a day! We are currently reading Charlotte’s Web and are both loving it so much! I’m so excited to revisit my childhood favorites with her.
My son (11 months) will listen for a little while. We look at board books together and he will listen to his sister “read” sometimes too. I hope he learns to love as much as big sis and I do. I wonder how to encourage him to read…especially since my husband isn’t much of a reader. I hope my son doesn’t start to see reading as an activity for girls! I guess I’m just borrowing trouble here, he isn’t even a year old!
We’re big readers in our house too. Have you checked out http://www.paperbackswap.com? It’s a really great way to “recycle” books.
We are big readers too….as a matter of fact, for our oldest daughter, we withhold reading as a punishment (as in, no reading until your room is clean!).
One of our rules is no TV or game time until reading…..this works great in the summer when there is less going on and they are more drawn to electronics. For every minute of readying time, they get “game time.” This may sound extreme (as in, too much gaming) but really, more often than not, they end up getting sucked into the book or a series of books and forget about the game time! 🙂
That was a necessary punishment for me as a child and it still would be! Until today, I’d never heard of anyone else who needed ‘remedial non-reading”!
We Morris’ are book addicts as well, and we do most of what you discussed above, although I am not good at reading aloud, I just don’t enjoy it.
Being homeschoolers, we are regular patrons of the library. The children look forward to being ‘mature’ enough to get their own cards. Each child brings a cloth bag to the libray with them, the rule is that you can get as many as you can carry yourself. 🙂
We also have ‘quiet time’ each day for about an hour where the littles ones nap and the others grab their library books and curl up with a good book.
Making books a regular part of life doesn’t have to be hard. Kids DO learn from watching the rest of the family. It’s always good for a big laugh when the baby of the family is in their car seat with a BIG book wrapped around their upper body ‘reading’ because everyone else is. What a hoot!
Kelly
http://www.themorristribe.net
They have always enjoyed this, however, it puts a little additional pressure on Mom to keep them in ‘fresh’ books consistently. I don’t mind though.
Alas I have done all above but my eight year old does not like to read himself but will still listen to me read all the time – He has trouble reading and I hope as things improve for this little guy (high iq -learning disabled) he will realize what a gift to the world around us reading is – the best advice I have as a teacher is keep reading to them even if they can read themselves as that keeps the imagination fired up!