Your child can love reading, even if you don’t.

Reading is such a critical skill for school success. By the time a student gets to third grade, teaching methods shift to text book learning. Glue and crayons get pushed into a corner waiting longingly for art time or indoor recess. If a student is not a good reader, that frustration will spill into everything. You not only want your child to be a good reader, you want them to enjoy it. If they enjoy reading, they will read more. If they read more, they get better at it and a whole wonderful world of information opens up to them.
So how do we get them to love reading?
It might be hard to think about reading if you don’t like it or don’t have time for it. But there are ways you can fold it into your daily routine. Here are a few ideas.
Create a Reading Habit
Set a reading schedule. It should happen every day at the same time. Like brushing your teeth. Don’t have to tooth brushing habit down yet? Hmmm. Maybe your child should do both at the same time. Hang up the schedule for your child to see. When reading time is over, they can check it off. Remember to praise, praise, praise. Positive rewards help to seal in good habits.
A Special Place
Create a special place for reading. You want your child to be comfortable and somewhere quiet. In mommy’s bed, in the closet with a flash light. Be creative. Add some stuffed animals for your child to read to. Or a real animal if you have one around. Animals don’t care if you don’t know all the words. Add a yummy snack with reading time will go a long way. Add as many positive elements to this activity so that the good feelings become associated with the reading activity. Bwwwaaa haaa haa.
That Book is Boring
Stay far away from boring stuff. Please. We want them to like this so that they will keep doing it. Let your child read anything they want. Do not worry about the difficulty or the content. That will come later. Way later. We are trying to bring out the reading love habit, first and foremost. A struggling reader will not enjoy a chapter book that does not have a lot of pictures. Pictures are good. Let them read comics. Let them read baby books to the dog. You want them to feel successful. If they are looking at pictures and making up the words, that’s fine! The creative verbal process is an important step in reading. Magazine? There are words, let em read it. If they want to write their own stories and read that, that’s a homerun!
Reading sucks!
If your child hates printed words and reading time becomes the epic battle of doom, let’s back up and take a different road.
Listening to stories is a great way to develop a love for reading. Listening increases comprehension, vocabulary, facilitates discussion, and gets the imagination cooking. This counts as a reading activity. A family member reading to your child is a bonding experience that validates the importance of reading. As your child begins to enjoy this reading time, you can ask them to take turns reading along. Start off small, with a sentence here and there and work up to taking turns with a page, and then a chapter. But give it time. Audio books can work too AND you can listen along with your child.
The happy reader
Reading is such an integral part of having a successful life. Build reading into your daily routine and build the happiness into it. It will pay off in the end.
