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When it comes to reading, some children find the whole concept a little difficult. It isn’t through lack of trying or encouragement on your part as parents or from the school, but often the issue is that some children just find reading plain old boring. So how can you encourage your child to read more?
We all know that reading is really important for children. It can often be one of the most important things they do, but making it fun or engaging your child in reading can be difficult. So I wanted to share with you some of the fun ways to encourage your child to read more.
Encourage your child to read more with these top tips
Read with them
One of the first things that you can try is reading with your child. This can become a lovely part of your day and evening routine. Settling down and letting them read to you or even reading to them at night can be a great way to encourage them to read more. The fact that you are involved and engaging with them, listening to what they are reading, is fun and different, Especially if you don’t do it too often. You don’t need to stick with the school books, you can choose books yourself.
Get the family involved
As an extension of that, you can also get other family members involved. Encourage your child to read to their grandparents, or ask older siblings to read with them. If you are expecting a baby, then your child could take time to read to the baby bump.
Create a cute reading area or nook
If you want to make it easy for your little ones to read, then you need to make it accessible. This is when making a cute reading area or reading nook in your home or in their bedrooms can be a great option. This can be the area where their books are stored, and you can also add a comfy chair, bean bag, cushions and blankets, as well as a lamp to make it user-friendly for reading. If they have somewhere to read, they may be more encouraged to do it.
Swap books with friends and family
Another great way to keep things fun and also get some new books for your little ones to read is to swap books with their friends and family. If they have friends in their class or perhaps cousins who are the same age, this is a great way for everyone to try new books and genres and a chance to read different things without having to buy new books.
Start a reading challenge
If your child loves a challenge, then a great option is to consider starting a reading challenge. This is a great way to get them motivated to read different books and to be challenged. There are plenty of reading challenges you can start online and often your local library might do something over the summer holidays. This brings me to the next point.
Join a local library
You can join your local library. It can be exciting for kids to head to the library and see all of the books. There are lots of different options and genres so it may open up your child to different books they may not have ordinarily tried before.
Make it topical
If they are learning about things in school right now, then the reading they do can be topical with subjects they are expressing interest in at school. You can also look to make things topical by taking into account what is going on in the world at the moment, or if it is a specific holiday. For example, reading Christmas-themed books during Christmas, or learning about religious holidays. There are plenty of options to think about and making it topical can keep their interest.
Join or start a children’s book club
If you have a local book club then why not sign up? This usually gives a book to read each week and then they can discuss it when they next meet. If there isn’t a local book club why not start one with some of your child’s friends? They can all feel encouraged to do something different.
Tap into their interests
What is your child interested in? Are they into sports or have particular hobbies? This is where reading can be used alongside that. For example, if your child is into football, then why not introduce them to books about football? It can be story books that have a football theme, autobiographies of footballers (if appropriate for your child to read) or even fact-finding books about tactics or particular footballers.
You can find all sorts of books related to different sports and hobbies and it will help to keep their interest as they will enjoy what they are reading about.
Get them to read to their pets
Do you have any pets? Then why not encourage your child to read to them? This is especially good if your little one is shy and perhaps doesn’t feel confident reading to anyone else. If they sit and read to their pet, then they will feel like they are doing something proactive as well as enjoying reading.
Head to meet and greet events
Do they like a particular author? Maybe there is a meet and greet event that you can attend. This can encourage your child to read more, especially if they have met the author and gained a signed copy of a book. You can also head to events that are specific to authors or books that they have shown interest in. Searching online should help you to find something appropriate.
Lead by example
Finally, it might be worth trying to lead by example, especially if you enjoy reading yourself. Make a point of reading and gaining enjoyment from it, and your child could start to mirror your behaviours. You could even sit and read separately, but together, as a nice way of bonding.
I hope these tips help you to encourage your child to read more.
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