How to make your child love books, will my child ever pick up reading, and can I make my child a good reader?
If these questions are stuffing your mind, then this blog is especially for you with a child age 6 months to 12 years. Books reading is one the best activity literally, no one can deny its significance. But almost everybody knows the benefits of reading, so we will not discuss it further. What’s important is to start discussing our suggestions and tips for parents that will help their child love books. You may also notice that your child feels bored while reading so how to make books reading interesting for your child, we will help you to do so. This blog will also cover a section on teaching kids to read at an earlier age. These tips will guide child reading and surely will help you and your child if you start following it.
Read Yourself:
One of the best ways to make your child love books and start books reading is to read yourself. Children learn everything from their parents at an earlier age. Your child sees all our actions and activities and keeps learning the whole day. If you want your child to start doing a specific activity, the best way is to do it yourself. Let your child see you reading.
The parents need to be role models for the children in the reading activity. Children closely monitor and imitate their parent’s behavior, so to inspire children for books reading the best practice is to make them see you reading as well.
So being a loving parents it’s your responsibility to start reading. Maybe you don’t have enough time to read stuffy books due to your busy schedule. An alternative is to start reading some useful Indian magazines like Outlook money, Femina, India Today. You can also consider reading some internationally popular magazines. It’s totally up to you which one you prefer.
Differentiate between Studying and Reading:
Parents must differentiate between studying and reading. Studying is the process of gaining knowledge through research while reading is an activity to gain knowledge. Although the fun fact is that in Indian context if you want your child to do study or read, the same Hindi word is used for (Paro). Now it’s the parent’s responsibility to tell their child in a way that their child can differ between two terminologies (studying and reading). Parents must devise a different word for studying or they can also change their wording for it.
And this process of diverting your child towards reading must in a friendly way. It is necessary so can the child consider it a fun activity, not an extra burden. Believe me methods of nagging and pushing your child toward reading will not work at all. No one can enjoy a task if you are forcing it on that person, and also the results will be unsatisfactory, no one will get benefited at the end.
Reading can be a straining activity for children, especially at younger ages. The parents need to be patient and give time to their children to get accustomed to this new habit. The nature of the process needs to understand so it can prove fruitful for both parents and children.
Surround your child with books of his/her interest:
If you want your child to enjoy the reading activity and always keep him/her motivated, it’s necessary to surround your child with books of your child’s interest. The books can vary based on your child’s age. Some kinds of books in which your child will take interest are books of vegetables, animals, superman, Spiderman, television series, and picture storybooks. This step is very much necessary for child reading.
You can also monitor your child in which television series he/she takes an interest. So you can replace the television series with books on it already present in the market. If you want a person to start loving the task that he/she is doing, a good way is to know what his/her interest is. In this way, you will get excellent results.
Make your child read daily:
For performing any task, if you want to develop a habit of it, you need to do it consistently and on a daily basis. Now to do it successfully it is necessary to avoid distractions. The parents must arrange a specific time of a day dedicated to their children’s reading. During that time all sorts of disturbances like mobile phones, television, toys, and games must be avoided. During a designated time make sure your child is reading actively. It can be any time of the day, the parents can arrange the timings that fit their daily schedule.
Try to make a routine for books reading. You can choose either to read every evening before bed or just after dinner, but what important is to make sure your child reads daily. You should find a place in your house where the child won’t get distracted.
Discuss the characters of books:
When your child finishes reading a book of his/her own interest, the parents should discuss the characters of the book with their child. This activity is very much necessary to make the reading interesting for your child. For that purpose, the parents must also know what is in the book. The parents need to go through the book once so they have the knowledge of the story and characters discussed in the book.
Parents can discuss characters of the book like caterpillar, stars, comets, and planets. From this action, the child will start thinking about books as an integral part of their life. And they will take more interest next time. Parents can discuss the bravery of some superheroes i.e; how he save the world, what strengths he has. What you like in him personally. As a reply children will discuss their thoughts with their parents and they enjoy the process.
Suggestion for older parents;
We have some suggestions and tips for older parents with their children at 7-8 years of age. These tips will help improve child reading ability and will motivate their child towards reading while doing it as a fun activity. So let’s START
Continue reading sessions even after your child learns how to read:
At the age of 7-8 years, a child is in the process of learning how to read. During this period he/she struggles in reading, presenting it as an excuse parents avoid trying to build their child’s reading habit. This is not good at all, parents during this time should continue the reading sessions with their children. Let the child read according to their own way. The child will face difficulty in pronouncing and understanding different words but it’s the parent’s responsibility to help their children in reading. There are many ways on which you can educate your child on how to read. It would be better if you do some research about it. In the end, you will know many techniques to guide in the process.
Find good books:
You need to find good books for your child to build their interest in reading. For this, you need to visit different libraries and find books based on your child’s age. From libraries, you will have a variety of different books to select from. Another way is to exchange books with people and they can be other parents, your friends, and family members. Once this process gets started it will help you in the long run.
Many public libraries have a Liberian who can help you in finding the books appropriate for your child. You should think about what type of literature you would like to introduce your child to. Choose the books that enhance the reading curiosity in your child.
Suggestions for younger parents;
The following are suggestions for younger parents having children age up to 4-5 years.
Let your child handle the book:
You should let your child handle the books the way he/she wants. Let the child play with it like a toy, just like you don’t consider it necessary to teach your child how to play with a toy, the same is the case with books. This will make the books attractive for the children as there will be no force to stop them from what they wish to do. Let him open the book the way he/she wants. It could be from anywhere, from the middle or from the end.
Let your child free with his books, let him/her build a relationship of his own with all his books.
After some time teaching your child the right way of opening the book and how to handle it. Teach your child how to turn pages, realize your child that turning pages smoothly, and taking care of books is necessary.
Don’t focus on the text:
Being the younger parents you need to make the books reading a fun activity for your child. For this purpose you should not focus on the text, instead, you must point to various pictures present on the pages of a storytelling book. You should describe various objects present in a picture, explore them one by one based on its color, size, body parts, and strength.
Many parents just start reading the text to their children, they want their children to learn new words and learn how to read. They think that their child will take an interest in it, but it’s a delusion and it doesn’t work like this. If you want your child to enjoy reading you need to focus on the picture first, not plain text.
Teaching kids to Read:
Example:
[Photo Credit: Amazon.com]
The pictures show a storytelling book for children with the name of “Sharing a Shell”. This is the front page of the book, as you see we have an illustration. The parents need to describe the things that appeared in the picture to the children. And they must use a very friendly and sweet tone.
Parents need to describe the picture as;
Look, baby, it’s a big snail. And what the color of it, do you know. Oh yes! It’s yellow in color. Hey see, he has two eyes, and it is going round and round. (While pointing to the small blue one) And there is another one as well, look baby how cute it is. And look at the top there are some many fishes, Can you count them (one, two, and three) and there is a fourth one as well.
In this way, you create imagery in the mind of your child. Now he knows what is in the picture. After that you have explained all the items and things present in the picture, you can read the text on the page and explain it to your child. You should turn pages one by one and repeat the same process.
Children will enjoy this process and love reading next time.
Conclusion:
Books are considered the best friends in life. If a child develops the habit of reading books from the start, it will continue during the whole of his/her life. These are some of our tips that will help your child start love reading. If you are struggling to make your child love reading, you can apply these tips and suggestions. We hope if you follow them the result will bring success and you can build books reading habits of your child right from the start. These are the suggestions we think are useful so we share it with you. I enjoy reading it and think it will help you, please share it with others. If you didn’t understand any concept clearly and want a further explanation, we can guide you personally.
For any questions please ask it in the comment section.
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