The Gift of Reading
Parents often ask me what they can do to encourage their children to read, and my answer is simple: be a reader yourself. Kids are quick to notice the difference between what adults say and what they do, and today, when many adults read primarily online, it’s especially important to consciously model lifelong reading habits for your children.
Give books that you loved as a child to the youngsters in your life. When I turned eight, my parents gave me a matched set of Heidi and Bambi. For some reason, they seemed a marker of my maturity since I had already read my mother’s copies multiple times. Her tattered hardcover editions of various Oz books later mingled with the trade paperback copies of others that my parents bought for me, and still later with the mass market trade copies that my younger brother had in the 1980s. Today, my daughter owns all fifteen Oz books in a lovely three-volume anthology.
Read aloud with your children, even after they can read on their own. Many of my students struggle to read aloud, so we take turns, switching at every new paragraph. Regular reading aloud teaches phrasing, correct pronunciation, and overall fluency. It’s also a lot of fun. I generally avoid stopping to look up words because turning a read-aloud into a vocabulary lesson makes the entire exercise less enjoyable. A quick explanation that doesn’t distract from reading the story lets you get to the good parts sooner.
Read whatever your children want you to read, even if you don’t think you’ll enjoy it. You will almost certainly be surprised, as I was when I discovered that the Star Wars novels my son was obsessed with made surprisingly good reading. I also read every fantasy series my daughter discovers as well as books they liked from their college classes.
Used books make fantastic gifts. Money was always tight while my kids were growing up, but when my son became enamored of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series. I bought used copies of virtually every book in the series, paying as little as one cent per volume. I learned to stop in public libraries and used bookstores on vacations; both make great places to rest weary feet and while away an hour or two. When my daughter read Elizabeth Kolbert’s The Sixth Extinction for one of her college classes, she gifted it to her uncle, who then loaned it to me.
When we gift or share books with others, children learn that reading isn’t a solitary chore, but rather a gateway to an engaging universe of facts, fiction, and ideas that they can enjoy alone and share with others. So, give your kids books--and start reading!!
Comments