Today’s Topic Is:

Day 4: If you are a parent, or have advice for parents…what do you do (or think would work) to foster the love of reading in your kids?

I quickly want thank Rachel from Parajunkee.com for putting this fun Book Blogger Challenge together.

 

I am a parent. I have an 11 year old son. 

 

I am proud to say that Michael is a big time reader like his mom. He is my mini me when it comes to reading.

 

I have to admit that growing up my parents didn’t really instill reading into me. Yes we did have the Disney classic story books around to read but after a while when you have read them for the billionth time they get a little boring so I was thrilled when I went to the new school in are area and discovered that there was a library. I pretty much devoured the books that were in there and I think that was when  my love of reading full developed. 

 

I was in grade 5 at the time. The same was true for when I started junior high (7 to 9) I borrowed so many books and read so much that it was unbelievable. 

 

It was then that I made a promise to myself that when I had children I was going to make sure books were available 24/7 to them and I have to say I lived up to that promise I made (some 20 years ago).

 

When I was pregnant I would read aloud because I knew he could hear me and when he was only a few days old I pushed him in his stroller and we walked to the library and he got his first library card. I was told then that I was probably one of the first few to get their new borns a library card. Since then we have never looked back and probably have borrowed thousands of books over the years from out local library and taken part in so many story times and various other library activities.

 

So my advice to parents would be:

 

1. Get your child(ren) library cards.  Make it a point to go weekly. Expose them to all that your library has to offer such as story time etc. We did this from the beginning and my son loves it still. Encourage your children if they are in school to borrow from the school library as well. I know Michael takes full advantage of the school library.

 

2. Allow your child to buy a book monthly from the scholastic book club if they come home with it. I am a huge advocate of this.. We buy constantly from there. 

 

3.Don’t sensory or police what your child reads. You can suggest books but in the end let them make the choice. You will be surprised at the books that will interest them.

 

4. Read to your child daily and not just at bed time. I remember for the first few years I would literally read daily to my son and he would bring books to read to me and some days it felt like we were reading all day.

 

5. Read around your children so that they see you reading.

 

6. Make books accessible to your children. If money is tight visit garage sales, library sales, check the dollar stores (I have stumbled about a ton of great books there)  etc. there is always books some where for them. Take full advantage of your library.

 

7. Don’t force them to read when they don’t want to. We have had periods like that and I would ask why he didn’t want to read and he would say he was bored so we would look for something new to read and that usually works. 

 

So those are some of my tips I hope you find them helpful.