Elizabeth
FULL DISCLOSURE: By the way: this contest was prompted by a contest on Twittermoms. The winning blog entry receives I Can Read! books from HarperCollins Children’s Books. Just so you know: if my entry should win, my kids are now 14 and 11, so the I Can Read! books will be donated to the UC Davis Children’s Hospital in Sacramento, California.
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There are a lot more ways to get your kids to read than you might think – the same way there are more ways to sneak vegetables into their lives.
The trick Well, if you’re a mom, then you’ve probably dated once or twice in your life. Which means you’ve been handed your own copy of The Secret, Closely Guarded Girl Manual. (Shameless plug for my soon-to-be-published new book.)
Which means you know, like Tom Sawyer so cleverly knew, the more attractive and tantalizing you make something, the more someone wants it.
If your kids get even the smallest whiff that reading is something you want them to do, like cleaning their rooms, or (ew, gross, HOMEWORK), you’re sunk.
BUT: If kids, for instance, SEE Mom and Dad reading themselves
Do I REALLY have to remind you of how many times you yourselves heard the hoary old chestnut: “Do as I say, not as I do ” Need I remind you that NEVER worked, and you copied your parents anyway
The best advice I ever got in my LIFE as far as teaching my kids to read was to simply relax, take out a magazine, put my feet up, and read the darn thing.
Sure enough: my then-toddlers, eager to imitate Mommy, started grabbing their board books (okay, sometimes upside-down) and “reading” as well.
Additionally, here are my top five tips for getting kids to read – and these tips work, too, because as a journalist, I made sure to interview some tweens for accuracy.
TOP FIVE TIPS TO GET KIDS TO READ THIS SUMMER:
#1) Make a trip to the library a regular, fun event – but limit their selections to three to five books.
By limiting their choices, you make it more tantalizing. Your children will have to choose wisely, and if they make unsatisfactory choices, they will look forward ever-more eagerly to the NEXT trip. Another good idea Reward on-time book returns with low-cost visits to the ice-cream shop. This will reinforce reading and rewards.
#2) Let them choose their own books, no matter how stupid the book seems.
I always let my kids read whatever they wanted, even those dumb Barbie® stories, those thinly-veiled marketing books from toy manufacturers, and now that they’re teens and tweens, those endless bloated vampire rip-offs.
Because in between the low-end literature, they also somehow seem to find their way to Pride and Prejudice, and lately, my 14-year-old just discovered Hamlet. Also, because they know I don’t censor their reading, they’re FAR more open to suggestions from me.
#3) Series Books.
I know, I know, some of them make your skin crawl, but reading is reading. Some of the series seem endless, and some of them make you wonder what the heck publishers are thinking – but kids LOVE them, and they swallow them whole. Book after book. Kids have told me over and over again: they’ll read these. So: take a lesson from the 10-year-old army. If you want your kids to read this summer, hook them on a series.
Perhaps you can negotiate a compromise For every series they conclude, they can read a book YOU want them to read.
#4) The old, tried-and-true Reward Method.
You can keep a calendar, or any kind of chart (there’s no need for artistry here, but if it helps, you can download a chart here) to keep track of your kids’ tally of books.
Both of you – or the crew of you – work out between you what you think is fair. Five books equals a trip to GameStop Ten books equals a movie Either way, the idea is reading enough books garners the kids a reward, and teaches them goal-setting at the same time.
#5) The “Long Book.”
In our family, we do what’s called “the Long Book.” My daughters are too “old” for bedtime stories, but we still love to read and be read to at night – so we pick a longer novel, like Watership Down, or Tuck Everlasting – something that can’t be read in a single night. It brings us all closer together – like a mealtime – and we all take turns reading from the book.
NOTE: Keep in mind kids like NON-FICTION, too – a point parents often overlook. There’s a TON of great stuff out there.
NOTE #2: This post was inspired by TwitterMoms, and a discussion started here, prompted by HarperCollins’ Children’s Books “I Can Read!” series – but I would have written something like this anyway, in all honesty.
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