As parents, we want our kids to love reading and choose books over video games, right? But it’s hard. REALLY hard. Here are three of my best tips for helping kids fit reading into their everyday life–and actually enjoy it!
Kids these days are busy. They seem to have more activities, more homework, more tasks, and when you add in the pull of technology, it’s really hard to fit reading into a kid’s everyday life.
But reading is SO important! And if we don’t teach our kids to make daily reading a habit, reading will get put on the back burner, will become a task they have to do for school (instead of one they want to do for fun), and will become something they dread.
None of those sound good to me! I don’t know about you, but I want my kids to think reading is fun! I want them to choose books over video games. I want them to learn new things, relate to characters, and expand their vocabularly through books!
Are you with me?
I don't know about you, but I want my kids to think reading is fun! I want them to choose books over video games. I want them to learn new things, relate to characters, and expand their vocabularly through books! Are you with me? Click To TweetI already talked about fitting reading into your everyday life as a mom, so here are three tips to help your kids fit reading into their everyday lives:
1. Keep Books EVERYWHERE.
The more books your kids have access to, the better chance they have of doing it everyday. Most people like to keep their kids books in one spot (the playroom or their bedroom)–and that’s great! It’s fine to have a dedicated spot to keep most of the books. But you should also keep SOME books in various places around the house. If your kids have easy access to books, they’re more likely to pick them up.
Put a basket of books on the kitchen table for them to grab while they wait for breakfast to be ready. Encourage them to have a stack of books by their bed. Put some books by the toilet. Keep a basket of books in the car for when you run errands or are in a waiting room. The more places you keep books, the more opportunities your kids will have to read them.
2. Let them Stay Up Later to Read
Our three-year old doesn’t have any toys in her room. Our seven-year old has a few toys, but he knows he’s not allowed to play with them after bedtime. But they both have books and know they can stay up a little later if they’re reading. This makes reading exciting for kids!
The idea that they get to stay up past their bedtime to read makes books a treat! Even if you adjust their bedtime to a little bit earlier to make-up for this, giving them the option to stay up longer to read creates the idea that reading is a GOOD thing.
3. Have them Listen to Audiobooks
A lot of parents don’t think of audiobooks for their kids. I mean, audiobooks isn’t really reading, right?
Wrong!
It’s true that if you’re kid is listening to a book, he’s not improving his actual “reading” skills. He’s not getting any better at sounding out or recognizing words on the page. But he is strengthening his vocabulary, learning how sentences should sound strung together while reading, and strengthening his reading comprehension skills. Don’t underestimate the wonderful things audiobooks can do for your kids!
If your child struggles with reading, you can even get both the audio and physical versions of a book and have her follow along while she listens. This does double duty and is a great way to help struggling readers!
Have your kids listen to audiobooks while they do chores, build with legos, in the car on the way to dance, and while they fall asleep at night. Listening to books does amazing things for a child!
There you have it: three tips to help you kids fit reading into their busy, everyday lives.
When do your kids fit in their reading time? Let me know in the comments below!q
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