How to Cultivate Reading Habit
The book is a boon.
When we moved to Finland, it was a hard and very lonely time for my son. Every day he tried to find a friend in school and every day he was disappointed. There were days when he felt too much low because of No friends. As a parent, we were always trying to give him company in his routine life but still, there was a corner in his heart that always stayed empty because of No Friends.
Then one day my husband took him to our local library and introduced him to various categories of books kids can have. By showing that he said that only a book can be a good and forever friend of a person. A book can be your friend irrespective of your age, place, country, and your situation. Book will never leave you whether you are poor or rich. Book will never leave you whether you look different than other people. Book will never react badly to you if you are not in good mood. So be a best friend of a book to be always happy in life.
A book can allow you to visit many real and imaginary places. Books can give you lots of imaginary friends also. Books will give you an understanding of society and people around and beyond borders.
“I have a passion for teaching kids to become readers, to become comfortable with a book, not daunted. Books shouldn’t be daunting, they should be funny, exciting and wonderful; and learning to be a reader gives a terrific advantage.” — Roald Dahl
Parents should find books of our kid’s interest to cultivate reading habits in kids. Giving them access to more and more interesting books is the best way to cultivate reading habits in kids. If possible go to the library with kids at least once a week. It will motivate your kid to read.
Such weekly visits to the library created immense interest in reading. My son alone is now going 3–4 times and bringing 30–40 books weekly. He is reading all books in a week and returning them to the library. It has turned him into a book wizard. Now he enjoys reading and is very happy by getting books as his friend.
To cultivate any habit in your kid, first, you should cultivate that habit in your life. Kids are always following you. After providing good books to your kid every day read with your kid. Means you read your book and your kid will read his book.
Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his needs, is good for him. — Maya Angelou
As Maya said, initially select a type of book that can cultivate reading habits in your kid. So, select books carefully as per your kid’s age. If your kid is just learning small sentences bring books with more pictures that describe words on that page. Also, bring small books to keep his interest in reading. If you bring big books from start, then kids can’t complete them and slowly kids will lose interest in reading.
Try to select the language of the book in which your child is thinking. Don’t push your kid to read in more languages at a time. It might reduce him from reading. At young age cultivating a habit of reading is more important, other languages can be learned at any age. If your kid has a reading habit he will definitely start reading books in other languages also. He will be fluent in that language.
So it is with children who learn to read fluently and well: They begin to take flight into whole new worlds as effortlessly as young birds take to the sky. — William James
Book’s world is a huge, amazing sky for kids to fly according to their imagination. Try to give them exposure to a wide range of imaginary worlds. Books also give them wings to fly in their imaginary world. Let them feel virtual experiences through words. All these virtual experiences will nourish them for a better life.
