How I'm raising a child who loves reading
I’ve always been a bookworm. I learned to read around age 4 (after everyone around got sick of reading the same comic book to me over and over), and by age 7 I was devouring Nancy Drews, the Hardy Boys and the Babysitter’s Club… one every couple of days.
As an only child who grew up in a rural area, trips to the library were the highlight of my week. I would bring home stacks of books over summer vacation and go through them, swinging in the hammock in our front yard. My mom teaches English, and my grandmother had a long stint as a librarian, so I guess you could say reading is in my genes.
Naturally I wanted to pass this love of reading on to my own child. Reading stimulates the imagination, provides width and depth to cultural / historical understanding, and for develops information processing and writing skills. But how do you raise a child who loves to read? I’ll share what I’m doing, and judging by my little bookworm, it’s working so far:
The first, and most important thing is to lead by example. I still read all the time, and I let my child see me reading, whether books, newspapers, magazines or signs around town.
I let my little one look at adult books. If you are worried about torn pages, look at the book with your child and explain how to carefully turn the page (I consider a torn and taped page a sign of a book that’s been well-loved, but that’s just me). I did make an exception from the ages of 8 - 12 months, when she went through a big ‘throw all the books on the floor’ phase, and moved many (but not all) of our books up where she couldn’t reach them. I replaced them with baby books.
Bring a selection of children’s books home. You don’t need to stick to books in your child’s age group, either… I like to go to the local library’s ‘flea market’ and pick up kids books for around a dollar each. I get baby board books, preschool books with lots of pictures and short stories, and grade school books about interesting topics, like wildlife or planes. Boo and I read some and flip through others.
Books with a good rhythm are a favorite around here. Try to get a couple that you can bounce along to.
The most important thing to do is read with your child. When Boo was a baby, I decided to read to her every time she asked, no matter how busy I was. (ok, ok, within reason of course!). She quickly learned that toddling over to me with a book in her hand and plopping into my lap was a sure-fire way of getting attention and cuddles. Associating reading with cuddling and nice feelings is important. As a bonus, when you and your child are both focused on one object, like a book, it creates what is known as ‘joint attention’: the best conditions for learning.
A couple more things I do:
We build reading into our daily routine. Boo gets three or four stories before bed, and often wanders into our room in the morning with a book.
I also keep a stock of tiny books in the diaper bag, in case we’re waiting for our food at a restaurant, stuck on the bus, or just out and about and want to have some quiet time.
I keep books within reach of my little one, so she can get them any time.
Now my little one is interested in letters and numbers and has started making some little ‘books’ of her own (scrap paper I’ve stapled together, which she draws in). She also sits with her books and reads out loud. When she gets a little older, I’m looking forward to writing down her stories, teaching her how to write, and getting into chapter books!
Happy reading!
