Reading has many benefits, making it important to find out how to raise a child who genuinely loves to read.
Why Reading Is Important for Kids
Setting the foundation for the life skills children need as they grow up, reading isn’t just a part of school. Books foster a greater awareness of the world around us and benefit kids in many ways:
- Academic Performance: Reading is the basis of literacy skills and helps children develop letter awareness, word consciousness, and the alphabetic principle. It’s also the cornerstone for success in so many other subjects, as reading is an essential element in finding out about math, science, and every other subject. Strong readers tend to have better academic achievement and performance. At the same time, research shows that over 20% of children who read below grade level in grade 3 don’t graduate from high school.
- Connection to Society: Improving emotional intelligence and even leading to a longer life span, reading gives a sense of connection by providing access to knowledge and inspiration. At the same time, it strengthens many developmental, academic, socioemotional, and cognitive skills. By fostering curiosity and connection about the world around us, reading is the foundation of our society and our future. The other benefits include enhanced vocabulary, improved background knowledge, and promotion of understanding of other people,
- Mental Health Benefits: Reading may also make us calmer and happier. “Studies show that reading By activating sections of the brain associated with language, studies show that reading lowers blood pressure, builds the neurochemicals associated with pleasure, and helps slow down heart rates. And it may also make us happier and calmer. By sharing books with your child, you draw closer as your child learns.
What Kindergarten Teachers Want Parents to Know
Read Aloud to Kids
Simply reading with your child is the best way to foster a love of reading. Reading should be a social activity, not a solitary one, building relationships as well as knowledge and curiosity. It should be interactive and fun, forming the basis for lots of asking, listening, and curiosity, while deepening connection.
Reading time shouldn’t be seen as an opportunity to teach literacy skills, but rather a chance to enjoy the pleasure that reading and hearing stories delivers, if the goal is to entrench a love of reading.
Your child will benefit simply by listening and will naturally pick up key literacy skills just by engaging in the read-aloud with you. At the same time, you are building their vocabulary, listening comprehension, and emotional attachment skills.
While it’s necessary to read to younger kids, older kids should still be read to, even after they are proficient readers themselves, preferably nightly through fifth grade. The length and sophistication of the text can be increased as they get older to challenge their imagination and build their vocabulary and comprehension.
Make It Engaging
Children will feel your energy so if the goal is to spark their curiosity, get them hooked on reading to grow into independent readers and life-long learners, but the activity must be engaging. Deciding when to stop reading aloud, follow your child’s lead, then allocate family time for kids and parents to read their own books.
While reading, spend time looking at pictures, pausing, and asking questions. Use your tone of voice to bring the story to life. If something you read is unclear to your child, stop to talk about it.
Read Often
Promoting routine, consistency, and repetition helps reading become a habit. Aim for at least 15 to 30 minutes of daily reading at bedtime, and encourage reading during the rest of the day.
As soon as reading becomes a reliable part of their day, kids are more likely to do it on their own, and find themselves enjoying it. It can take time for them to get hooked but the more you read, the better you get at it, and the better you get at it, the more you like reading.
Build Curiosity and Interest
Choose books that reflect the interests of your child, whether that is sports, tools, fairies, butterflies, or superheroes, to help keep them engaged. Let them pick their own books, or ask for recommendations from teachers, friends, librarians, and other parents.
To hold their interest, the characters in the books should look similar to your child and family, and speak the same language. If a different language is being taught through reading, both home language and second language books should be sourced.
Investigate Reasons For A Dislike of Reading
If your child is especially negative about reading there could be an underlying learning issue. Check-in with their teacher if you have concerns and/or to rule out issues such as dyslexia. Make sure your expectations are realistic on when your child will learn to read. There is a range and not all children read at the same pace in the same grade.
Model Reading
Whenever possible, take time during the day to relax, sit, and read. Children will see you reading, imparting the idea that reading is a pleasurable, lifelong activity.
Reading is not just about books and can be the newspaper, recipes, food labels, and other written text, in print or online. Children imitate their parents. If their parents read, the kids will read too.
Engage in Literary Activities
Keep literacy fun and social, generating positive emotions around reading even before they go to school. Rhyming games, singing, and talking about the sounds in language help build awareness of letters and words while the library is an exciting place for young children.
Narrating activities to younger kids as they go about their day also invites questions and curiosity about their natural surroundings.
Listening to music and singing songs can also reinforce language skills and the connection between words and meaning, and book clubs and reading with friends are also good activities associated with reading. Children could even be encouraged to make their own books.
How to Encourage a Love of Reading
It’s important to make reading together a fun, exciting bonding time each day. The experts say the three main things that help cultivate a love of reading are curiosity, time, and modeling.
Books to Get Kids Hooked on Reading
“The Neverending Story” is a book about why reading is so important. Here are a few more specific choices:
Toddlers- board books:
- “Roald Dahl’s Little Library”
- “The Big Hungry Bear.”
Preschoolers- picture books:
- “Where the Wild Things Are”
- “The Giving Tree”
Kindergarteners- silly stories:
- Any Dr. Seuss book
- “The Kissing Hand”
- “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie”
Elementary school first chapter books:
- “Frog and Toad”
- “The Travelling Cat Chronicles”
More advanced series:
- “Harry Potter”
- “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”
- “Dragon Tales”
- “Charlotte’s Web”
- “Nancy Drew”
Longer books with chapters:
- “Little House on the Prarie”
- “Magic Tree House”