I am a huge believer in letting children read what they want to read! So often I hear that parents want their kids to read at a certain level or that they should be reading XYZ because of their age and while that is true in a sense, leaving those leveled readers and tests to the teachers and at school is key!
Fill your house with fun books.
When a parent comes to me saying that their child doesn’t like to read, I know it’s 100% fixable. They just haven’t found something that their child enjoys reading about. If my 7-year-old comes to me and wants to read PaperPie’s “GO TEAM”, a little board book that mentions hockey on one tiny page, I let him. If he wants to cue up a QR reader phonics book and let a professional read to him while he studies the pictures, I let him. Can he read above those levels, yes! Should he always be reading at his level, no. Ya know what? Reading at your “level” or “slightly above your level” isn’t always fun. So let your child read about what they want to read about as often as they want to read about it!
Reading is a necessary skill, but it should also be fun, and this starts by not making it a boring dreadful experience.
What’s your child’s top interest right now? Fill your house with books about that! Getting them excited about reading a book works so much better than forcing them to read! Children’s interests are constantly changing and as a result their reading material should be changing often as well! I once heard that we should buy our children new books when we buy them new clothes. As children grow, not only are their bodies growing but their brains are growing too and as a result their interests are changing. When you think about it this way-new books at home on subject matters that they enjoy is the way to keep them excited about reading.
If you are reading this and your children doesn’t like reading, it’s not too late. Here are few quick tips:
- Normalize books over screens: I am by no means anti screens. We do not have a screen free home. We watch television, I enjoy social media, my son plays video games but being bored isn’t permission to pick up a screen. We have a house full of books! Our go to is books over screens.
- Read Out Loud with and to your kids: Through reading aloud, children can learn the names and meanings of the objects, actions, people, and ideas all around them. At the same time, children can learn how these people, ideas, and things relate to one another, which is the critical background information for literacy development. Read out loud as a family! Don’t stop once they are able to read alone. It’s beneficial to read to kids even after they can read on their own. Research shows that continued reading aloud after age 5 (and well beyond) improves reading and listening skills and academic performance (and is also loads of fun!)
- Pick out a few books for them on topics they enjoy: Magazines and comics count too! Reading THAT material is still reading!!
So bottom line-let your kids read about what they love and fill your house with books, so they are drawn to books over screens!
What are your kids interested in now? Let me know in the DMs on IG!