The secret to raising readers

During the last fifty years, reading has suffered a precipitous decline. The blame has been widely attributed to electronic entertainment, but perhaps there is a more subtle and subversive force undermining the reading landscape: the association of reading with “homework.”

Ideally, our first reading experiences are warm and confusing. We snuggle with our loved ones while listening to enchanted tales … Read = JOY. Then we go to school. Little by little, our parents stop reading to us, feeling that it is more important to promote our independent reading skills. Perhaps it is the struggle to learn to read, perhaps it is the hours spent reading dry material designed to educate rather than inspire, perhaps it is simply the responsibility of having to read; In any case, those early underlying connections between reading and pleasure are now beginning to be replaced by feelings of pressure, responsibility, frustration, and even boredom.

To build, restore, or maintain a love of reading, we must continually reinforce the subliminal association between books and pleasure. We must look for ways to ignite, and then preserve, an inner fire, one that makes children want to read rather than feel compelled to do so.

But how do you start when electronic entertainment offers such seductive and addictive competition? The answer is in making active choices to support the JOY of reading every day.

These are just a few ways:

– Surround children with excellent books and expose them to them. Store them everywhere – in the bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, living room, and even in the car.

Snuggle up and read aloud together as soon as possible, and continue to do so, even as the children grow older.

– Provide a warm and welcoming reading environment, minimizing distractions such as background noise or bright lighting.

– Take regular trips to the library or bookstore to explore the sensual and tactile pleasures that books bring.

– Give books away and encourage others to do the same.

– Provide books that are tailored to individual passions, be it baseball or ballet, trucks or horses, great fiction and non-fiction abound in all categories.

– Do not force the completion of a book that is not resonating; there are too many great books that will. Help the children find the ones who speak to them.

– Don’t use books as weapons (“If not ___, then don’t read tonight”).

– Let your child’s personality and learning style influence reading choices. Auditory learners might like audiobooks, visuals might like graphic novels. Comics, magazines, how-to books – it’s all about reading, and if done with genuine interest and passion, it’s all good.

– Take note of what your child responds to in the reading material and try to provide more of the same, whether they are books by the same author, the same genre, or on a similar topic. Ask your local librarian or bookseller for guidance.

– Find ways to make practical connections with books. Cook recipes, listen to music, watch a movie or play games, explore art, make crafts, etc. inspired by books and stories.

In the words of author and educator Daniel Pennac, “a child has no great desire to perfect himself in the use of an instrument of torture, but make it a means for his pleasure, and soon you will not be able to stop him.” ! “