Anna Maria Richards
Many kids would rather use a smartphone or tablet or play video games than read books, and for some parents, that is frustrating. Do you want your kids to be good readers and to love reading? Here are a few ways to transform your kids from non-readers to readers.
Make Sure They are Good Readers
Some kids simply don’t like reading because it is too hard for them. You might not even know that your kids are bad at reading because you see them navigate video games and apps so well. But those programs are designed to be easy to follow along with and provide visual cues so that nonreaders can enjoy them.
If you would like to know how well your kids read, then sit down with them and have them read a page or two for you. Give them a book that is at their age level and see how they do. If you see them struggling, you may start to understand that the problem is not that they hate books but that they have a hard time reading.
You can work with them and help them to read. Also talk to their teachers about helping them with reading. You can also use reading apps online to assist them in their reading and develop them into competent, skilled readers.
Find Them Books That They Like
As parents, we tend to try to get our kids into the things that we love now or that we loved as kids. Just because you enjoyed Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew as a child, that does not mean your kids will like them too. Kids these days are different from when you were a kid, and they like different things. That’s okay, and it is important that they love to read and not specifically that they love to read the same things you enjoyed.
Let them explore the bookstore or library and see what books interest them. Don’t push them too hard into books that they don’t seem excited about. Learn about what their interests are and try to find books that fit those interests.
You can also search up books online that align with their interests. For instance, if you kid likes Minecraft, then you can do a search about books to read for people who like Minecraft. You will see that there are books based on the game, and then you may find other options as well that branch out from there and include the same of survival, creativity, and exploration.
Give Them Some Reading Assignments
Your kid may not know what kind of books they would like to read. If they are hesitant to pick up any books, then you can assign them some books to read. You might think that this will make them hate reading, but not if you do it properly.
First of all, find a book that you think they might enjoy. Then, you can attach reading to some activity they already love. For instance, you can tell your child that they can only play for as many hours as they spend reading. So, if they read for an hour, they then get to play games for an hour. This encourages them to read without you reminding them, and they could find books that they like this way- books that they might not otherwise discover.
Give Them Time to Read
If your kids are not reading, it could be because they feel like they simply don’t have enough time. They may have a lot of schoolwork and chores to do and have little free time left over. That time they may want to spend doing the things they love most and not trying to do something that is only third or fourth on their list of liked activities, like reading.
So, you can give them some extra time by having someone else do their chores when they have a lot of schoolwork. If you have your kids do housework and cleaning, you can hire someone to do that or do it yourself. Try using San Francisco’s Top-Rated House Cleaning Service and take some work off your hands and their hands for a while.
It can help to just give your kids a chance to spend some time reading and not feel like they have no time for it at all.
Put Books in the House
Another way to get your kids interested in reading is to keep some books around. If you have almost no books for them to read, they may not go and seek out books on their own. But you can go to yard sales, used books stores, and other sources to find cheap books to keep at home. You can even go to the library and pick out books for them to check out. Keeping books around will make them more likely to pick up a book at some point and start reading. This lets them read on their own time rather than forcing them to read when it is convenient for you to go to the library with them.
There are lots of opportunities to get large amounts of books for cheap or for free. Join book groups on social media and look at library sales. These can help you score books from dirt cheap and fill up your house fast.
Don’t Force Them
The ideas we have given you are meant to coax your kids into reading. If you make reading a required task, it can feel like a chore to the kids. They may not want to read if you make them read, so try not to push too hard.
It will help if you show them how enjoyable reading is by spending time reading on your own, where they can see you. When they see that you love to read, they may feel like they are missing out. Talk to them about what you are reading and share the joy that it gives you. Pretty soon, you may have a little reader.
