Our children – all 4 – love thunderstorms. That’s a fortunate thing since we live on the Gulf Coast, where storms are created over our warm waters! Every Summer day, they run onto the back porch to stomp with the thunder. But they have not always been so fearless. Each of them as babies and toddlers, were naturally afraid of storms – not screaming, but looking intently at me to see if there was need to fear. If I was afraid, they would be afraid. If I loved storms, they’d love storms.
Recently, I was reading about…reading…and having a love of reading. I wondered if it also is not a learned trait rather than a natural one? Jim Trelease, in the Read-Aloud Handbook, writes,
In concentrating exclusively on teaching the child how to read, we have forgotten to teach him to want to read…somehow we lost sight of the teaching precept: What you make a child love and desire is more important than what you make him learn.”
Our four children have such different personalities, but all four are avid readers. A friend, who has five children who do not enjoy reading, asked me how we taught our children to love reading. The question surprised me, as we didn’t do it on purpose and I had never wondered about it.
After thinking it over, these might be the reasons why our children love to read:
- I love to read. They have seen mama with reading material in her hands every day, all of their lives. There’s no such thing as “no time to read,” as all you need are a couple of minutes to read a paragraph. Paragraph upon paragraph, a book is read. In our house, Daddy doesn’t read much, so don’t worry if you’re the only adult reader in the house.
- We read aloud to them. Not every day. I wish we did read to them daily; it’s one of my goals, and has been one of my goals for a decade or so, but we do read aloud fairly often. When we read, it is always with inflection, sometimes with a tear (Horton makes me cry), sometimes with the deepest of belly laughs (Calvin & Hobbes), and sometimes with respect.
- We only read quality books and magazines. When I was first introduced to the concept of “living books,” I became paralyzed by what was a good book and what wasn’t considered a good book. Don’t do that. You’ll stop reading books, frustrated by the choices. Just go with what you think is a good, entertaining book. Do you have a childhood favorite? Start there. Introduce it to your child. Books are timeless. Our children loved Dick & Jane, for example, which are such old and non-techie books! They are good examples of a book series that someone else may not think is “good quality,” as they are quite simple. It doesn’t matter if a book is on someone else’s list of favorites. It can still be on ours.
- We don’t make a big deal about it. We don’t assign a certain number of pages (unless it’s a book that needs to be read a certain pace, like a history book). During school hours, for reading or literature time, I often say, “Read 30 minutes today, from a book of your choice.” Reading can be done anywhere: on the bed, in the rocking chair, or in the yard (see photo below of our then-12yo daughter). Also, if a book isn’t preferred, and isn’t needed for a certain reason (such as a history book), it can be shelved. Sometimes, we just don’t like a book. That’s okay, as long as he or she doesn’t dislike every book.
How to teach your child to love reading, if he’s especially reluctant.
If my child was reluctant, here’s what I would do: I would read aloud from an interesting book, stop mid-chapter in the middle of an exciting scene, or at a point in the story where one must know what happens next. I’d then silently place a bookmark, close the book, and set it down in a highly-trafficked spot. Likely, your child will not stay silent, but will beg you to read more. Say, “Oh, I have something of my own to read. You go ahead and finish this one.” If he wants to share the experience with you, let him read aloud to you.
Last year, I wanted our 14yo to read Watership Down, but he grew too bored of it too quickly. I didn’t want this book shelved, as I hoped for the discussion and deep thinking that would follow. I read aloud from Watership Down for about a week’s worth of school days. By then we were well into the story, figuratively on the edge of a cliff, so that our son had to know what happened next. I bookmarked the book, set it on the table, and said, “You go ahead and finish this, if you like. I’ve read it already.” He immediately picked up the book and read it through.
our 13yo daughter in a favorite reading spot
Here are some of our family’s current favorites:
from our 9th grader (15yo):
The Hobbit
from our 7th grader (just turned 13yo):
Corrie Belle Hollister series
from our 5th grader (10yo):
Enclyopedia Brown series
Happy Hollisters series
from our 2nd grader (7yo):
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (as a read-aloud)
As we each have our likes & dislikes, preferences & personalities, our favorites may not work well for you and your children. So let’s get more opinions! What are your family’s favorite books? Let us know, in the “comments” section, below. I will create a list for others so we can help each other!
p.s. note: all book links above are affiliate links, which sends us back about 4% from Amazon at no cost to you. As always, I only mention what I really like and truly use.
My nearly four year old is unaccountably fascinated by “A Christmas Carol” (abridged version!!!) as published by Usborne books and has been since last Christmas. We have followed it up by watching the brilliant Muppets Christmas Carol but the fascination with the story came from the book. Phrases and themes from the story are now a constant part of our family conversation. I am hoping it will offer us a way into other classics when she, and our other children, are older. The thing about reading as your article indicates is the freedom to go with a child’s interests and also to broaden horizons. I recently heard a discussion on radio where a teacher was emphasizing the importance of children reading books which are “relevant” to their experience – some one else responded by saying that surely the point of fiction was to take us to places we would never go otherwise. I thought that was a great point, although the beauty is, it can do both.
Like you, I absolutely LOVE to read, so it has been my hope and even my prayer that my children would too. As a child I learned to read early, maybe because my Mom read to us and took the time to teach me some sight words early. Despite my efforts of the same nature to help mine learn early, they actually struggled with learning to read. There have been some diagnosed visual processing issues that have been a hindrance,but I have continued reading to them and they have ALWAYS seen Momma and Daddy reading. Interestingly, at about age 8, reading sort of “kicked in” for them as far as the mechanics of it, and though I don’t know if I would call them avid readers yet, (especially when it comes to assigned reading,)I do notice that whenever we go to our favorite local book stores or even the library, they can occupy themselves for quite some time with reading materials they choose. So I agree that letting them read what interests them is pretty key to the process. Because when I consider it from that angle…they are becoming more “avid” all the time.
This might sound cliche, but my 7yo son loves to read the historical stories of the Bible NIV. He is so enchanted by the lives of these Biblical figures and all the drama with the fighting, rebelliousness, and even perceives God’s grace through it all.
He also can sit there for a long time with a Usborne encyclopedia in his hands. He does groan when I assign something for school, but he quickly gets into it and can focus for quite a while. Looking back, I think what really developed a taste for books are our read-aloud sessions, and listening to me ooo and ahh and eeeek at the appropriate parts!
I was an elementary school teacher for 17 years and it was always disappointing for me to hear from parents that their children didn’t enjoy reading. I would suggest to the parents that they read aloud to their children and they would always be surprised that this would still be considered reading. 🙂 I also would suggest to them what the author suggested, to read a chapter up to it’s most exciting part then stop reading. Interestingly enough, the child would always pick up the book and finish the chapter. Once the parents did this for a few few nights the child would eventually pick up the book and finish it themselves because they became frustrated with the constant suspense. 🙂
Jim Trelease best selling Author of the Read aloud handbook has many suggestions about how to help children love reading. One of my favorites is to let your children choose the books they want to read and not prevent them from choosing books that are below their reading level. I mentioned this to several friends and we all discussed how much we enjoy reading books that are “below” our reading level for fun and enjoyment.
As a child I loved to go places I never would otherwise! Great discussion points.
I forgot to mention that we never bothered with those flimsy, boring readers that come with some reading curriculum. They were, um, too boring, and didn’t encourage a love of reading. Our boys both began their free reading with Calvin & Hobbes, which is full of pretty big words! They didn’t realize they were doing “school” when they read those comic books, but reading is reading.
There’s something about the “assigning” that can get grumbles out of some kids, isn’t there? Our 15yo likes to grumble at me for any book I place in his hands. He should know by now that it’ll be a good one! 🙂
You made me smile, too, when you said they’d be surprised that reading aloud is considered reading. I used to think I was SUCH a big cheater by doing that, but have read studies that suggest how good it is for a child.
Wendy, you’re so right, I should have noticed that about our children, too. And even about me. After our 10yo begged and pleaded with me to read his Happy Hollister book (to myself, silently), I finally agreed to do so. Once I got into the 2nd chapter, I couldn’t get up from the table and kept reading until I finished the entire book. I know that book is “below” my reading level, but it sure was good!!
Reading, we are blessed to have to bookworms! Our favorite is the Bible. Both our children (who are 10 years apart) loved it when I read aloud to them the first two books from the Little Britches series by Ralph Moody. Okay, please don’t wince, I did clean up the rough edges as I read it aloud. It gave them such a vivid picture of the life of Ralph and his family in the turn of the 20th century days. We had some great chats about how to live honestly and treat others with respect. Now we have a line of communication opened with regard to so many important real life topics. And it all started from reading to them as infants, even before they knew what a book was. Thanks! Stefanie
I love that you took something and made it work for your family. Thanks for sharing that, Stefanie!
We do a lot of reading as well. My 9 y/o son is currently hooked on th Warriors series. The Librarian has been strugeling to keep him in books, because he keeps finishing them before the next one comes in. Before this we read the Percy Jackson series as a read aloud, and both enjoyed it.
Thanks for mentioning your favorites! I'll have to look at them for our 10yo, who needs something new to read.
My 6 year old son LOVES “Captain Underpants” as a read-aloud. He laughs hystarically! We have recently discovered “Hi Fly Guy!”and other Fly Guy books. This speaks right to my boy’s heart (it’s so gross!) and he works so hard to read it himself. Other “boy” books we’ve loved (read-alouds) are “Super Fudge,” “The Mouse and the Motercycle,” and “Beowulf” a picture book version by Michelle L. Szobody.
Thank you so much for sharing, Sarah! I can't wait to try out the books you mentioned.
My daughter got hooked on the magic Treehouse series, and then moved onto the Bone series. Now I think it’s Ottoline with a smattering of Judy Blume, Beverly Cleary and Roald Dahl books. You are so right about letting kids read what they enjoy. I’m not so keen on the Bone books myself, but that’s the series that got my daughter into writing.
You're right that sometimes they choose something we wouldn't have chosen. But to get a writer from it! That's wonderful.