Ways to Encourage Your Children to Read

Courtesy of Read Aloud

• Make a love of reading be your most important education goal for your children. Children who love to read will excel in everything they do.
• Show your children that you value reading, don’t just tell them. Let them see you reading.
• Make reading a daily activity.
• Take outings to the bookstore.
• Give books as gifts.
• Always have time to read with them or help them with their reading.
• Have a wide variety of books on hand, as well as newspapers, magazines and comics.
• Find books that your children are interested in.
• Surprise your children with books about their favorite animal, hobby or passion.
• Join the Book of the Month Club and let them receive a new book every month.
• Create their own little ‘library’ in their room on their own bookshelf. Give them a sense of ownership.

For Preschoolers

• Take your children o the library often while they are young and eager to go.
• On special occasions, take your children to the bookstore and let them pick their favorite book.
• Buy lots of cheap books at garage sales and flea markets.
• Spend more time (and money) on books than on Disney movies.
• Make read aloud time fun for your child.
• Read whatever books your child wants to read.
• Narrate the story with voices and action, get into it and have fun!
• Wrap up quickly when your child loses interest.
• Let your child participate as much as possible- let her finish the sentence, read the pictures, take turns reading, etc.
• Plan play activities that involve books- picnics, crafts, science projects, kits.
• Act out favorite stories and characters from books.
• Let them ‘read’ stories to their dolls or younger siblings.
• Play bookstore or library.
• Do projects, recipes, crafts and activities from books.
• Play reading games- cross of shopping lists, put name tags around the house, play school.
• Have a reading time after meals.
• Be aware of how your child learns best- visual, auditory, or hands on.
• Do a reading night with popcorn and blankets, instead of movie night.
• Don’t do any activities that your child doesn’t enjoy. Learning should be fun!
• Don’t buy books that your child isn’t interested in and make them read them.
• After your child learns to read continue to read books to them above their reading level.

Elementary School to Teenagers

• Encourage reading a book series.
• Continue to encourage and participate in library use.
• Don’t schedule so many activities that your children don’t have time to read.
• Continue to spend money on books as well as all their other activities.
• Try reading plays aloud (and acting them out).
• Have a quiet, comfortable reading area in your home. Make it the most comfortable room in the house.
• Fathers, spend time reading with your kids.
• Keep books and magazines in the car.
• Don’t make your kids turn the lights out at night, let them stay up and read!
• Only own one television, and never put it in your children’s room.
• Cancel your cable subscription and buy books instead.
• Don’t force them to read something they don’t like.
• Send teenagers to the bookstore with money to buy any book they like.
• Allow them to choose their own books from the Book of the Month Club.
• Read a book together at the same time and discuss it.
• Encourage them to write and share what they read about. Do ‘book reports’.
• Keep perspective. Reading should be the number one educational goal, but not the only goal.
• “It is impossible to sit down to write if you have not stood up to live”- Emerson.

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