This post has been a long time coming! Every time I talk about how much all my kids love to read, I get so many questions about how to raise kids who love to read.
There are so many benefits to helping your kids develop a love for reading. Reading exercises the brain, improves concentration, develops imagination and creativity, and better vocabulary and language skills. Kids who love to read do better in school, are better test takers, have less behavior problems, better comprehension, stronger social skills, are more empathetic, have stronger writing skills and are better able to understand and process more complex ideas.
If that wasn’t enough of an incentive, what other kid-friendly activity is going to give you so much peace and quiet, and can be taken and is appropriate to do almost anywhere?
All of my kids are different and some of them were definitely not natural readers (in fact my boys in particular really fought it in the beginning), but they all are obsessed with reading now, so I know these methods work, no matter what kind of personality or affinity for reading your kids have.
Here’s what I did to raise kids who love to read.
Limit screen time. I have always had a very limited approached to screen time with my kids. Even from the time they were toddlers I knew that lots of screens were going to be detrimental to their brain development and I’m so glad I stuck to my guns on this. We don’t watch T.V., we watch maybe one movie a week (on Friday night as a family), they don’t have cell phones or social media, and my boys have a video game console (that they bought themselves with money they earned on their own) that they are only allowed to play for an hour a week on Saturdays.
Screens are soooooo addictive, and lots of screen time overstimulates a child’s brain, which has a lot of detrimental consequences. It negatively affects their behavior, their ability to focus, their energy, and most of all it creates a lazy brain. Reading is like exercise for the brain and if you want your child to be a good reader, you really need to limit the time they have in front of a screen. Another benefit beyond reading with cutting out screen time, is that you will see massive behavior improvements. Kids who have limited screen time (especially limited interactive screen time) perform better in school, are more patient, have better behavior, and get bored less easy.
Give them an incentive. When my kids first started reading, I told them I would buy them a new book every time they finished one. This was such a fun incentive for them. Who doesn’t like getting to pick out something new? It totally worked and motivated them to read more. Our kids’ library has become quite impressive. As they’ve gotten older, we’ve phased this out, mostly because they each read 2-3 (sometimes 4-5 in the summer) books a week and it’s just not practical to buy that many any more. We get a lot of use out of our library cards. I still buy books, just not as many as they read. And my kids love to reread their favorites.
Read them non-picture books. Once they are no longer toddlers, I started reading them chapter books without pictures. This sets the foundation for reading later on as it encourages them to develop their imagination and it helps them to learn to focus and listen intently to what is being read to them, rather than just looking at the pictures and only half listening. Plus it’s great quality time with your kids and creates the best memories, we like to curl up in a cozy spot with some comfy sweats on and just read together. My favorite read aloud chapter books for little kids are Junie B, Ramona, Harry Potter, and Narnia.
Listen to audio books. Same principle as reading non-picture books. There are lots of studies that show that listening to an audio book requires almost the same amount of mental focus as actually reading a book. This is a great exercise for younger kids who don’t know how to read yet. From the time my kids are 3 on I start doing audio books with them on long car rides. It works so much better than turning on a movie, everyone sits quietly and is trying to focus on what is being said, no one is anxious for the ride to end because everyone wants to know what’s going to happen next. You can also download audio books for them to listen to with headphones while they’re doing things they don’t enjoy like chores. They’ll work harder and faster and have a positive association with work because, it’s enjoyable! Our favorite audio books have been the entire Anne of Green Gables series (even my boys loved these), the Chronicles of Narnia, the Harry Potter series, and The Hatchet.
Find a book that will give them an emotional reaction. I always say, if you don’t like to read, you just haven’t found “your book” yet. Carter was by far my most reluctant reader. When he was younger, every single day was a fight to get him to do his 30 minutes, and he hated every minute of it. I really wanted him to develop a love for reading and I felt that if he was able to have an emotional reaction to a book, he would fall in love with reading. So when he was in 4th grade I went to the library and checked out Where the Red Fern Grows.” He has always LOVED animals and I knew that he would really enjoy reading about Billy hunting with his two dogs, but mostly I knew that he would be heartbroken at the end of the book. I know that sounds cruel, but I knew that if he had an emotional connection to a book he would fall in love with reading and that is exactly what happened. He’s loved to read ever since. In fact just the other night he was talking my ear off for a good 30 minutes excitedly breaking down the plot of his latest read.
Here’s a list of some of my kids’ favorite books and book series:
Land of Stories Series. Books of Bayern series. The Selection Series. Percy Jackson series. Unfortunate Fairytales series. Lost Girl. Wings. The Iron Butterfly series. Gregor the Underlander.
Please feel free to share your kids’ favorite books in the comments or any tips you have to help kids develop a love for reading!
