Because what parent doesn't hope to see this? Here are some tips--from a recent piece in the Washington Post:
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I might not be good at some parts of this parenting gig: my son is
more obsessed with screens and technology than I’d like, and the whining
in this house regularly makes me want to cover my ears and lock myself
in the bathroom. But, much to my delight, all three of my kids are avid
book-lovers, and part of me wants to take credit for that. (That’s
always much more fun than taking credit for the less-desirable traits of
our children, isn’t it?)
Maybe part of it is luck and the
personalities of our kids, but much of it is not, and we parents can do a
lot to cultivate a lifelong love of books in our children.
Start early.
From birth (yes, birth!) we can read to our children. My mother has
commented that there were very few board books available when my
siblings and I were babie
My kids know their way around the stacks, the librarians all know us,
and thanks to my eager children, I regularly hit the checkout maximum
of 50 books per patron. It has been a part of our family life since they
were born, and they beg me to stop there on our rounds of errands.
Read to calm and reconnect.
Nothing, and I mean nothing, is better at my house than reading
together when the day has gone sour with little ones: the tantrums
(theirs, and maybe mine), the messes, the potty training accidents, the
sibling bickering. In these moments, reading to my children is a bit of a
rescue for all of us. The gift of the book is that whenever I open it,
it calms all the raw nerves, including mine, and rubs out the hard edges
of the day into something soothing, quiet, and close. Sometimes reading
can’t wait for naptime or bedtime, and I need to drop the vacuum or the
iPhone and just be physically and emotionally close with my children,
shepherded by a book.
Skip the “learn-to-read” books.
You are eager for your child to read, and he knows his letters and
sounds, so you sit down with the easiest “learn-to-read” set you can
find and try to get him to sound out each word. Please, don’t. In these
little books, any semblance of an interesting story is sacrificed in the
name of short sentences and the awkward and repetitive use of one
syllable “short a” or “long U” words, or whatever fits the theme of that
volume. My older two had no patience for sitting and sounding out
boring books when they were kindergarten-ish age, so we quickly dropped
them and just continued to read aloud while they naturally became more
developmentally ready to read. And each one did, in his or her time,
mostly skipping over the painful sounding-out process altogether. Even
better, they continued to love books, since reading never stopped being
associated with engaging stories and no-pressure togetherness.
Read even to the reading child, and read a level up.
Kids are usually ready to comprehend much more sophisticated plot and
vocabulary than they can read by themselves. My husband still reads to
our two older children, ages 7 and 9, every night before bed. It’s a
daily opportunity to connect, to expose them to advanced texts, and to
open conversations about tough moral issues. Over the course of a year,
they read the entire Harry Potter series when my daughter was just 5 to 6
years old. There is some heavy stuff in there, but she had her Daddy
chaperoning the whole way, and she understood it and she loved it. Down
the hall, I read to my 4-year-old. Starting a year ago, we kicked off
chapter books with Stuart Little, followed by Mr. Popper’s Penguins, the
entire Little House series, and many others. I stop often, making sure
she understands, commenting, and asking her what she thinks will happen
next. “Wow, Templeton really doesn’t want to help Charlotte and Wilbur,
does he? Why not? What do you think he will do?” Don’t underestimate
your kids – but stay with them.
Enjoy it. At our house, reading is not a milestone
to check off, but a beloved part of family time for all of us. Of
course, I still have to fight the screens, and the whining, and whatever
else is coming down the parenting pike. But the books are here to stay –
to teach us, to foster connection, to inspire and delight us, to see us
through.
Sharon Holbrook is a writer living in Cleveland, Ohio. You can find her at sharonholbrook.com and on Twitter @216Sharon.
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