If your child is lacking the motivation to read, here are 10 ways to help bring that passion back!
When I first became a mom, I had no idea how important reading to my child was. It wasn’t until I had a preemie that I started researching. After reading, and watching documentaries, I learned that it is one of the MOST important things you can do.
10 Ways to Reignite Your Child’s Passion for Reading!
However, some children just aren’t used to doing it. Or maybe there are so many other distractions, that they are uninterested. It could be that they used to love reading and after a few years in school, they avoid it like the plague.
Whatever the reason your child isn’t enjoying reading as much, here are 10 creative ways to help them get excited about reading again!
1. Make a Reading Routine
This might sound counter intuitive, but building reading into your routine will help your child get used to it and learn to love it again. Sometimes, when school or other distractions come in, children forget how much they like it. Building reading time into what you are already doing will help your kids come to expect it.
When they know that you will be reading a story at a certain time of day, like during meal time or when they are in the bath or shower, they will feel like something is missing if you skip this time! It will be a welcome respite from the business of the day. They will start to request it again, especially if it is a story that they enjoy.
2. Learn Some Book Marketing
Many parents forget that their are competing against some of the most sophisticated marketing techniques when it comes to other forms of entertainment. TV, apps, computer games, toys, they all have huge teams that put a lot of energy into making kids want to use and watch their products. We need to start getting savvy when it comes to making books look more appealing.
The way we read is one way we can market books to our kids better. If we aren’t good at reading aloud, we could invest in some high quality audio books. We could subscribe to a site that offers an audio library! Most of the time, the voice over for audio books is very well done and helps the story come alive for our children.
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We also need to think about the way we display books in our home. If we can make books look more appealing by displaying them in a way that attracts our children, we will catch them picking up a good book more often. Displaying the covers of books as much as possible will help with this.
Finally, we can design specific places in our home that are for reading. These spaces make children want to relax and grab a book or magazine and flip through. It’s an area that pulls everyone in and they just can’t help but read there! This may take some trial and error and also revamping from time to time, but it will be worth it!
3. Peak Their Interest with Strategic Storytelling
My husband grabbed a book off the shelf one day and called my daughter over. She didn’t really want to read, but it was something he didn’t do all the time, so she was intrigued. He started reading to her and she was captivated by the story. He got to a really exciting part of the story where someone was close to getting captured or in danger. Right before we could learn what happened, he slammed the book SHUT!
She was shocked! What was going to happen?! Hey! That’s not how you read! However, this strategic reading made her want to read the book on her own so she would discover what had happened! It was a little bit more advanced than she was used to reading, but she was determined. My husband had achieved his goal of reigniting her passion for reading!
4. Get Some Help to Ignite their Passion for Reading
You don’t always have to be the one reading to your children. Take the pressure off! Ask people for help. This could be as simple as finding a podcast that reads aloud to children, a youtube channel, an online book club, or friends and family that can read via Facetime!
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5. Use Summer to Set Up for Success
During the summer, so many people are worried about summer slide. Avoiding it is easier than you think. You simply have to read! Use the summer to start a new reading routine, set up your reading spaces, go to the library more, or bring books on your road and camping trips. Take the summer to give your kids that passion for reading back!
6. Join a Book Club
If you child is older, they might like meeting with other children to discuss a book and do activities related to it. If you don’t know of one, you could start your own! You might not be comfortable with that, so you can join our online book club and enjoy all the benefits of a regular club, but on your own time!
Check out the Raising Raving Readers Book Club!
7. Give Reading Incentives
More than chores, I would rather reward my children for reading! The ROI is huge! Not only are you going to improve their vocabulary, you are establishing how important reading is in their lives.
Great incentives for reading are ones that encourage more reading! What does that mean? Well, it could be that the incentive is SO motivating that the child wants to do more and more of it. It could also be that the reward encourages more reading, like new books or a trip to the book store.
Whatever you choose to do for an incentive, make it really good, but moderately difficult to achieve. You could also encourage your children along by having a smaller reward related to a bigger reward so they get just a taste of success and want the whole!
8. Libraries are Your Friend
The more you can use your local library, the more your kids will love it! There are SO many fun things that libraries do. Mark all the events on your calendar so that if you don’t have much to do one day, you can make a quick trip!
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Story times at the library aren’t just for little kids. A good picture book never hurt anyone. So bring your older children along and if it is too babyish for them, they can pick up a book from the young adult section!
9. Pick the Best Books
If you’ve ever purchased or borrowed books that your child doesn’t really like, you know this part can be really hard. I’ve got your back! You can follow my pinterest board for great children’s book lists, join my VIP customer group for in-depth reviews, or request a personalized book list.
10. Monkey See Monkey Do
This is true for everything we do. Our children look up to us whether we like it or not. They can’t help it! We are their heroes. If we want them to love reading, we have to model that in our own life. Maybe we need to reignite our own passion for reading? What have you read lately that has helped you be a good example for your children?
Get More Ideas to Encourage Reading in Your Home!
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