I am going to go out on a limb here and assume that every parent reading this wants his/her child to read. We understand that reading is a gateway to education. We want our children to reach for their dreams and achieve greatness and reading is a huge part of that, right? So today will be the first in a series of blog posts all about reading with kids.  Each month, these posts will be considering ways to help our children be better readers while encouraging them to love reading. Before we look at some specific ideas for enhancing the reading experience for children, there are two things I need to point out first.

1-Many parents have come to believe that reading is something they are not responsible for teaching their children: they believe it should only be done at school. Before I had children, I taught 8th grade Language Arts which focuses on reading. I saw these parents and their attitudes firsthand. If you are one of those parents, or you know someone who has come to believe this myth that a child will learn all he needs to know about reading at school, Jim Trelease shares some pretty eye-opening statistics in his book The Read-Aloud Handbook. He defends, “research shows that the seeds of reading and school success (or failure) are sown in the home, long before the child ever arrives at school.” He tells about how 21 kindergarten classes were examined to determine which children displayed either high or low interest in books. They then examined in detail the students’ home environments. Check this out:

(Information based on this article.)

If that isn’t enough to persuade you, consider the fact that an average child spends about 900 hours a year in school and 7800 hours outside of school each year. Who will have a greater overall influence on your child?

2-Without being sexist at all, I need to point out that there are natural differences in the brain and how it interprets language between boys and girls. I won’t spend much time in this blog post talking about it, but the book The Wonder of Boys is an excellent resource for understanding scientifically-proven differences between the genders. I found it to be very helpful for me as a mother to understand how my four boys’ brains are hard-wired very differently from mine in more areas than just reading.

OK, so now that we have established that parents play a huge role in teaching their children and that boys and girls process language differently, let’s dive right into some simple ideas for how to implement these in your home.

Power of Moms offers a great resource called Sharing the Joy of Reading that includes videos and articles for children of different age groups and what we can do with each of these age groups to help them to be better readers. If you need a place to start, and you don’t have much experience with teaching reading, their videos are especially helpful to show how you can easily incorporate their ideas into your daily life. It doesn’t have to be complicated. You don’t need to create worksheets and vocabulary lists for your child.  You don’t have to scour Pinterest looking for the cutest and most educational printables.

When my twins were little, I could not hold both of them on my lap and still hold a book to read with them. I wanted to have that close time with them as we read, but it was just different. Sometimes I would pick up one boy and read with him while the other boy played right beside us on the floor and then I would switch boys and read another book. This did not always work. What worked best for us when my boys were very small was a soft blanket laid out on the floor with all three of us sitting on the blanket. I would lie down on my belly and hold out the book so they—and I—could see it as I read. Sometimes I would sit on the blanket and hold the book open to face them while I read upside down (this is easier once a book is more familiar). The following are some of my favorite books that I read with my boys when they were very little:

At first, you really just want to expose your children to books. Choose books that appeal to you. The more expression you put into your reading and the more interesting the story, the better because they will learn to associate books and reading with enjoyment.  But if you’re tired and you don’t have it in you to win an Academy Award for your production of The Cat in the Hat today, it’s OK.  Just read!
Books are an excellent way to teach colors, shapes, animal sounds, and vocabulary. As your child starts to verbalize, allow him to point to objects in the book and try to say what they are. I used to play a little game with one of my sons with a particular book that really didn’t have many words. We would sit together and I would ask him, “Where is the __________?” and he would point to that object on the page. I asked until everything on the page was identified and then we moved on to the next colorful picture.

Think about habits.  You can build your routines around reading times. Do you want to read a story before play time in the morning? Do you want to read a story before lunch? Before naptime? Before bedtime? There are no particular “right” or “wrong” times to read. The important thing is to establish reading times with your children.

As they get a bit older, life lessons can be taught through books. My favorite picture book that teaches a beautiful lesson is One by Kathryn Otoshi. I love love love this book for teaching my kids to stand up against bullies. It is a beautiful book with a beautiful message that is not condescending or one-dimensional.

Not every book needs to have a moral.  Books can simply be fun and engaging. These types are my favorites because they inspire children to imagine and to dream.

I am so excited to be sharing more ideas and thoughts with you about reading with your kids in the months ahead! I don’t want to overwhelm you with too much information all at once! I hope you will take an idea or two from what I’ve shared with you today and let it bring a little more joy into your life and the life of your little readers!

What do you do to help your children love to read?  Share in the comments below!

[See more about Reading with Kids here]