Ways to Instill Good Reading Habits In Your Child

Mom Reading with Son

How to Instill Good Reading Habits in Your Children

by A. J. Kenyon

As a parent, we need to find ways to encourage our children to read more.  A child is never too young to learn to read, even at an age as early as an infant.  A child’s brain develops rapidly from birth till the age of four.  An infant observing words and pictures and listening to words over time will become familiar with the words.

Modern technology increasingly changes our way of living; our child’s time is taken up with computer games, television, electronic games etc. Technology is taking away our children’s motivation to pull out a book and start reading. As parents, we need to encourage our children to make time to read and growing their imagination. Here are a few tips on instilling good reading habits:

1. Weekly visits to your local library; have your child pick out as many books to read or for you to read to them. Make it a fun trip as often as possible.

2. If you can afford it visit bookstores, offer your child the opportunity to pick out a book to read. Create a reality where receiving a book is a treat!

3. Find a time to turn off the television. Sit with your child and have them read to you.  Or, you read to them, so that they become familiar with words and turning pages.  Children strive on receiving their parents’ attention.  The best time would probably be before bed, as this helps children with their bedtime routine and will help them go to sleep. Talk about the story’s plot; make sure your child understands what the narrative is about.

4. Find fun, non traditional ways to have your child read to you. Ask them to read the road signs while driving to school.

5. Offer your child a reward at the end of a certain date if they get good grades at school. My daughter worked hard to do well in reading and writing and gained an iPad for her hard work. She enjoyed stories so much, she loaded games that assisted in boosting her reading and communication skills.

6. When buying gifts for your children always buy something that requires reading. Most toys for children require them to read the instructions, and without them realizing it they are learning to read and take care of their toys!

7. Find creative ways to instill a love of reading in your children. I often buy yummy fortune cookies.  My daughter has this in her lunch box and every day she reads her note inside her fortune cookie.  I even get her to sometimes write out her own school lunch order.

8. Confidence is the most important part in a child’s reading.  Find a book that is basic and easy to read with a story that is exciting, fun and can be clearly pictured in a child’s mind.  No difficult words.  Even if your child is at a high grade level, starting from the basics will refine their reading and boost their confidence.  Most importantly find a good book with a story that keeps your child wanting to finish the book and keep reading. An exciting story will make them look forward to the next night reading, and will motivate them to finish reading the book.

I have always wanted to help children enjoy reading and learning.  I studied the books my own three children enjoyed reading and realised the pattern they had became confident in reading that kept them reading.  That pattern was easy words throughout the story and a story that could easily be pictured in their minds. I decided to write my own book with similar concepts, with fun and easy reading.  As my daughter would always say, “this is easy peasy mama.”  Every night at the age of seven my daughter read one page a night of “Joey Willis to Another World”.  Not only was she so interested in the story and what would happen next to Joey Willis, it was so easy to read and yet it was a novel, as she would say, “a big girls book.” She loved the book so much she remembered every detail of the story.

A. J. Kenyon strives to teach children to feel confidence in reading. Currently, she lives with her three children in Frankston South Victoria, Australia. With much inspiration and love for her three children A.J. Kenyon completed her novel of “Joey Willis to Another World”, an adventurous story about an 11-year-old boy.  For more information, visit: www.joeywillistoanotherworld.com

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