Is there anything more pleasant than a cosy armchair with a blanket, aromatic tea and a book to get lost in? To forget all your daily troubles and dive into a world of adventures, stories, kind and beautiful people, mysteries or thoughtful ideas? Are you one of those people who love reading? You look around to see people reading less and less in favour of all the electronics and other technological novelties. You would like them to experience the calming and relaxing effect of good literature.
But most of all you would like to give your children this amazing gift of the love of books and help them to unlock the magic of books. However, your children are a little less crazy about the idea of sitting still with a book and reading just for pleasure. It is not a secret that if a child finds something boring he will resist it!
And so you wonder: how to make children love reading?
After all, the benefits of reading are plenty and here you have just a few (but if you are a book worm you know them all of course…):
- Improves Language Skills: Reading helps children develop their vocabulary, comprehension, and language fluency. Exposure to a wide range of words and sentence structures enhances their communication skills.
- Boosts Academic Performance: Regular reading practice correlates with better academic performance across all subjects.
- Fosters Imagination and Creativity: Reading exposes children to new ideas, perspectives, and worlds, sparking their imagination and creativity. It encourages them to think creatively, visualize scenes, and explore endless possibilities.
- Enhances Concentration and Focus: Engaging in sustained reading requires concentration and focus. Regular reading habits improve children’s ability to pay attention and stay focused for longer periods. And this skill is more and more difficult to learn in our society of constant distractions.
- Improves Communication and Social Skills: Reading exposes children to different styles of writing and communication, improving their own writing skills and verbal expression. It also provides topics for discussion and enhances their ability to engage in meaningful conversations.
- Reduces Stress and Promotes Relaxation: Reading can be a calming and enjoyable activity that helps children unwind and relax. It provides an escape from everyday stress and offers a sense of comfort and refuge.
Above all, reading instils a lifelong love for learning and discovery. It opens doors to new ideas, experiences, and opportunities, enriching children’s lives and expanding their horizons. Hence we really should make an effort to teach them to love books.
Here I will tell you a few strategies that we implemented at our home. These things worked well for all my children, all 5 of them like a good read and it is not unusual to find them relaxing with a book.
If you are looking for ideas of reads that may spark a love of books check what we have read recently!
Model it
You have probably noticed that I love to read and it is very common for me to spend my free time reading. We have a cosy reading corner where I love to sit with a book. Everyone in my family knows that I like to read and see me enjoying the reading time. I prefer a book over a TV show. Occasionally I will make notes while reading which keeps my children curious, why do I do it? My children know and see that reading can be a calming and enjoyable activity that helps to unwind and relax. By showing enthusiasm for books and sharing my own reading adventures with them, I hope to instill a deep appreciation for literature and learning
Read aloud
Introduce your child to reading by reading aloud to them. Hearing a parent read books to them is crucial in shaping a young child into an active reader. This habit started at a very early age ensures that books become daily companions. Make it your family tradition to have a read-aloud session and don’t stop once your children can read themselves! This way you will keep exposing your children to a wide range of words and complex sentence structures that otherwise they would not be able to read. This daily exposure to words is also very important for children who struggle to learn to read. Not to mention the bond that it creates!
If your children are not get used to listening to you reading you may want to prepare some quiet activities for them to be enjoyed during this time. Sketchbooks, pencils, finger knitting, sewing and other crafts that spark your child’s interest.
I have a brave thought for you: replace afternoon TV watching with a family read-aloud session.
Schedule regular reading time
This is different from reading aloud with them. Reading is a habit so part of our daily routines is personal reading time. It is easier to do with my homeschooled children, but when my older children were at school they were allowed extra longer time before bedtime if they were reading. And it became a habit for them to read before bed.
Reading is not an elite activity, so should be part of the natural rhythm of our daily life. Regular reading time will ensure that children will accept books as a normal part of life.
Library/bookshop visits
Make regular trips to the library to stock up on good titles. As a treat visit a bookshop. Let them choose their own books even if they start with comics or silly books like ‘X Floor Stories Tree House’. You can guide them in their choices and discuss the values that are encouraged in these types of books, but in the end, you want them to get hooked on the idea that reading is something to look forward to.
My boys started with books like Diary of a Wimpy Kid and X Floor Stories Tree House. At the same time, I have provided them with better choices and at some point they decided themselves that silly books are not worth reading.
Incentives
Make reading delightful! We have a special reading armchair that invites you to sit down with a book. During colder times, we have read together next to the fire, with hot chocolate, snuggled in blankets. When the weather is nicer I would send them outside with a book to read on a hammock or a blanket. One of my children liked to read on a tree!
Another way to make reading more interesting is to find books that were made into movies. We would read books and as a prize watch the movie based on them. A few suggestions:
Anne of Green Gables
Treasure Island
20000 Leagues Under the Sea
Heidi
Swiss Family Robinsons
Chronicles of Narnia
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Book club
We have a home education book club run by one of the local mums in our library and I know there is one more book club for school children run in the afternoons. If your library does not offer it at the moment maybe you can start it?
The book club was a game-changer for my youngest boy. He watched his older brother having fun with other children talking about books and doing some fun activities. It took him a while to join as he thought the books children read for the club were difficult. However, once he tried he loved it. As a matter of fact, last time he was one of only a few children who managed to read the slightly more challenging book: The Wizard of Earthsea, by Ursula K. Le Guin.
In the end, encouraging your children to love books is a very simple process, so just begin! Start collecting your favourite books and sit down with your children to read. Soon you will find your own family rhythm and delights of living with books.
