July 7th, 2008 by admin
It’s early evening, and, at first, there is quiet in the living room. Then nine-year-old Georgia giggles from where she is sprawled on the couch. She has reached a funny part in the novel she is reading. Kevin, 14, recites aloud an interesting fact from the website he is perusing at the small computer desk tucked into a corner of the room. Sophie, 12, nudges her mother and longingly asks her to look at an ad describing a horse for sale in her magazine. Mom, sitting beside her on the second couch, pauses from reading the weekend newspaper and responds, for the millionth time, with a sympathetic but firm “Hmm. Sounds like a good one, but we can’t get a horse!”
It’s a cozy scene that combines the simple joy of family togetherness with the many practical benefits of reading. Is it too good to be true? No way. This is a description of an evening in my own home. It’s the result of some simple, thoughtful strategies that I’ve incorporated into my family’s daily life, with only a little extra juggling and manœuvring! Here are some ways that you, too, can hook your kids on reading at home.
Set a good example
Take some time to sit down and enjoy a book or a magazine while your children are awake and active. This might seem impossible, but don’t always save your reading for after the children have gone to bed. It’s important that your kids see you, their role model, reading. You’ll be doing what they do at many elementary schools: making DEAR (Drop Everything and Read) time.
Keep reading material handy – for you and your kids
If it’s available, it’s more likely to be read. Throw a magazine in the diaper bag. On the coffee table or in a bin beside the couch, rotate a variety of books, such as intriguing non-fiction with lots of sidebars and cool captioned photos or full-colour atlases. Dust off one or two of the volumes in your set of encyclopedias and stash them in the car, along with bird books, word puzzles and brainteasers. They can entertain passengers (“Are we there yet?”) and waiting drivers (“I’ll be right there!”) alike.
Put bookcases in the living room, in bedrooms or even in the hallway
Make books a part of your household decor. Putting a few anthologies of poetry, short stories and joke books in the bathroom is not a bad idea, either.
Go get ’em!
Make trips to the local library and bookstores with your children. Attend local book fairs. Find out when one of your children’s favourite authors is coming to town and drop in on a reading.
Turn off the television
That’s what Ken Setterington, children and youth advocate of the Toronto Public Library, recommends. Setterington is co-author of a recent study available from the Canadian Library Association entitled Opening Doors to Children: Reading, Media and Public Library Use by Children in Six Canadian Cities. The study found that the less television children watch, the more likely they are to be readers. And how else to motivate those kids to crack open the books? Setterington suggests that families create a tradition of reading together. “They can either share reading aloud a good gripping story, or they can put aside a minimum of 20 minutes a day for quiet reading time together.”
Tune out (some of) the mess
Reading is definitely not as neat an activity as watching television. Tolerating a little “stimulating” clutter of mags, comics and library books might be a fair reward for your avid readers.
Build a home library
Studies have linked the sheer numbers of books you have in your home with your child’s success at school. Try to build up your collection of children’s books. Purchase books inexpensively at school book fairs, garage sales and secondhand stores. Your local library might have a shelf for discontinued books. Mention to friends and family that gift certificates for bookstores make great presents. Load up your own shelves with books of all types and keep them circulating.
Read aloud to your children
Cuddling up with a child and sharing the intimacy of a storybook strengthens a child’s relationship to books and creates a lovely bond between a child and an adult. Bedtime is a popular time for reading together, but try to find other occasions as well.
Choose special reading places
Throw blankets over the kitchen table and read together in your secret fort. Dedicate one place in the house as a “reading corner.” Add pillows and maybe even a comforter for snuggling. Make sure a cache of books is within easy reach.
Read aloud to your older children too
Don’t stop reading to your kids when they become able to read on their own.
Boys Will Be Boys
Heather A. Blair, an associate professor in language and literacy education at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, studies the out-of-school reading preferences of adolescent boys. She finds that they prefer different reading materials from girls: “Reading interests align with life interests. Boys tend to read more nonfiction and digital text.” By “digital text,” Blair means words and images that appear on screens, including computer games, video games and even text-messaging. Just take a look in boys’ backpacks. Spot the sports and video-game magazines, comic books and trading cards? “Many boys don’t read the kinds of novels that we consider ‘reading’ – but they are still reading,” says Blair. Reading doesn’t only count when the words are in a book or magazine. Parents have to learn to think beyond the traditional notion of literacy.
How to make sure boys keep at it? “Let them explore,” says Blair. There are many things to read that don’t look like books, such as comics, the sports pages in newspapers and game directions. “Read along with them. Observe their online and digital reading and get a sense of what kinds of text they encounter. Talk to them about what they are reading and what they like to read.”
For more information visit www.education.ualberta.ca/boysandliteracy
Why Is Reading Important for Kids of All Ages?
Reading takes our children into places where their imaginations can soar, where they can problem-solve, empathize and gain insight into other times, places and cultures. Children can enter into the minds of different characters and experience their points of view and motives – and the consequences that might result from their actions.
The more children read, the better their reading skills become. There is also a strong connection between reading and writing. By reading at home, children are gaining knowledge into how written language works. This, in turn, may help their writing skills.
This entry was posted on Monday, July 7th, 2008 at 5:46 pm
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