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Some Ideas on Helping Children Enjoy ReadingNov 19 '01 Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line Read to your children and yourself.
One of my greatest desires for my children is to see them grow up to be readers. This is a great task and here are some of the things that I am doing to achieve this goal. 1. Start reading to your children when they are still babies. I started reading to my children before they were even born and never stopped. I felt pretty silly reading to my big tummy, but I kept on. When my kids were little newborn babies, I read to them. When they were toddlers, I read to them. I have been a Sunday school Teacher for the Ages 2-4 class for 8 years. I can now tell the parents who read to their kids before the toddler stage. A child who was read to when he was to little to get up and walk away, will sit much more quietly and longer, than one who wasn't. I am not a fool, I know that they will get bored eventually. Still a toddler who was read to as a baby will sit longer. 2. Teach them to take care of their books. I taught my kids from day one to be nice to their books. It is no fun to read to a kid who is more interested in tearing the pages of the book, than whether Sam likes Green Egg and Ham. 3. Read with expression. When I was a young mother reading to my newborn baby, I realized that it was so much more fun to read with more expression. A little baby is not going to seem so attentive to your story, so it is more entertaining for the reader to give it a little life. I remember once when my brother heard me reading to my daughter and he asked "Are you reading to her, or auditioning for Broadway?" Hey, I was having fun. 4. Have lots of books around the house. I started buying and buying books. Anywhere I could find them. I love going to garage sales for books. Almost every garage sale will have a stack of children's book. I save time and just go up to the seller and ask how much they want for all the stacks. Then I have fun going through them at home. I remember once I went to a sale and the lady had two or three, brown, grocery sacks that were filled with children’s books. She let me have them for a dollar. When I got home my children started the treasure hunt of going through the sacks. We came upon a book that my family had when I was child. It had been everyone's favorite at our house; it was "Richard Scarry's Best Story Book Ever." When I opened the book I found my brothers named printed in the front cover! I don't how this book found its way back to us, but my kids love it as much as my brother, sisters, and I did. 5. Go to the Library. My kids love the library and I try to take the regularly. Whenever one of my kids becomes interested in something I look up books about it. My son knows more than most adults do about sharks. He is now into paper airplanes, and he came up with idea to get a book out of the library that tells how to make paper airplanes. Also, my kids love the librarian. When they get to the library they go right up to her and ask her to help the find the books they want. It is cool how they understand that she is there because she wants to help them. They are already trying to decide what they are going to get their favorite librarian for Christmas. 6. Find out what their interests are. When I became the administrator of our church's Olympian club. Part of my job was to encourage the kids to read. They each have to read at least one book to earn a medal. I have started asking the kids what their favorite movie is, and then giving them a book that was similar to the movie. That has really helped nearly all the kids in our club have completed all or most of their required reading. 7. Ask about what they are reading. When your children are old enough to read on their own, ask them about what they have read. Kids love the interest you show, and if they liked the book they will enjoy talking about it. Also, by doing this you will be able to see how well they comprehend what they have read. 8. Tell them about what you like to read, or what you liked to read when you were a child. I have found that my daughter enjoys reading a book that I have enjoyed. Also, my husband likes atlases, and books that tell about the state histories. My daughter will sit and read these kinds of books forever. I told a girl in our Olympian club about a book that I suggested she read. I told her I enjoyed it when I was young and what parts I liked the best. She didn't really enjoy the book as much as I did, but she did look for the parts I told her about and read those particular parts. Which I think is better than nothing is. 9. Make sure they see you reading. Children are imitators. This is something that has come to my attention lately. I have been so concerned about my kid's reading. I have been reading to them, and helping them choose books, but I forgot to read myself. I hadn't been taking the time. I still loved to read I just let it slip away with some much else to do. I took the time to read a book finally, and the author made the point that if you want your kids to read, than you have to be a reader as well. I making time to read now. I am also encouraging my husband to read. He doesn't think that he likes reading, but I think that our son especially will try to be like Dad. So I have been getting him books out of the library that are interesting to him, like sports books, atlases, and state history books, and he is now reading much more often. These were just a few ideas from a regular mom, who thinks reading is important. I must go now because I am on chapter 30 of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE.  |
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