How  to Get Your Kids to Love Reading

Education and early childhood development experts are unanimous in their advice: read aloud to your kids.  A lot!  What may seem like a passive experience for them is actually stimulating activity in their brain as they hear you read aloud to them, and in time it will bear fruit in their own enjoyment of reading.  Parents who think they’re “too busy” to read to their children are losing much more than the little time they think they’re saving.

Snuggling up to a little one and opening a book is a cute picture, but when they won’t pay attention to the story, keep wanting to talk about the pictures and get side tracked by their own ideas, you can feel frustrated that it’s not worth the effort.  You would be very wrong.
I have gone through two very energetic boys who did exactly that, but even so, I kept it up, didn’t allow myself to get upset that they weren’t initially paying attention, and did my best to listen to their comments about the pictures while trying to steer them towards the story.  That was around 3-5 years of age that this mayhem happened, but they still loved it when it was story time.  The benefit they got was that they were close to me in a calm and quiet atmosphere, focusing on one particular thing, which is a big deal for that age!  We were interacting and sharing ideas, and I was establishing the idea that books are fun and good.

In time they were really concentrating on the story, putting themselves in the position of the main characters and imagining the story as it unfolded.  It was great for their creativity and their ability to visualize ideas along with building a stronger vocabulary and good grammar.  They became hooked on books.  I still look forward to reading time at the end of the day if it isn’t too late, and I’ll even find my husband quietly listening in and enjoying it too!  My youngest is 11 and can read well on his own, but that doesn’t stop me from the pleasure of reading aloud quite yet.  For those with children 8-11, here are a few excellent books for you to read to them:

- The entire set of the Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
- The Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe
- Prince Caspian
- The Silver Chair
- The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
- A Horse and His Boy
- The Magician’s Nephew
- The Last Battle
- The “Little House” series by Laura Ingalls Wilder (it’s not just for girls!)
- Little House in the Big Woods
- Little House on the Prairie
- Farmer Boy
- On the Banks of Plum Creek
- By the Shores of Silver Lake
- The Long Winter

Other good authors to check out at your local library: Beverly Cleary, Brian Jacques, E.B. White, A.A. Milne, and for the littler ones plenty of Dr. Seuss!  That’s enough to get you started.

If you don’t like to read out loud, start today, and with practice you’ll love it too!

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