Our Christmas holiday was spent in California with my immediate and extended family. Every year, someone in the family hosts the dinner and gift exchange. This year my sister gifted both kids a stack of books. T exclaimed that he was so excited for his books and E spent a good 30 minutes flipping through each of the books in her stack.
That evening I had a few different people how I got our kids excited for reading. It is also a question I get every time I post a photo of us reading on Instagram. So today I am sharing a few tips for bringing more books into your home and to hopefully help your littles love it!
1. Make Books Accessible!
If you want your little ones to want to read, you've got to have books easy to grab. We have so many books all over our home. In the living room, our room, their room, everywhere! Having them in easily accessible spots makes reading an easy option at all times.
Just starting out? Make a reading basket. Something small filled with books in a common area or next to your child's bed or favorite place to relax. Now that doesn't mean spending extravagantly on all the latest and greatest books. Head to your local library. They often have books sales. We've gotten so many great titles for a great deal. In fact, I used to do this even before the kids came. Thrift stores, garage sales, and even the dollar store are great places to find affordable books for your kids.
2. Make Reading Routine!
Bring reading into your child's normal routine, like second nature. Now that doesn't mean it needs to be structured or boring or stuffy. That just means make it an everyday thing. Normalize it. Read to your littles every single day! When your kids mention being bored, invite them to grab a book from that basket you put together and read. Whether by themselves or read aloud to them, even if your kids are older. The biggest thing is to just have books there as part of our normal environment and routine so they will naturally want to read more.
Three things have really helped in this area for us. First, we are always reading books. At bedtime, nap time, in the car, whenever. It started reading to our son when he was still in the womb. I spent a lot of time on modified bed rest during the last 10+ weeks. Then continued reading aloud to him when it was just the two of us before we moved to Alpine. It became a natural part of the routine. Not something youre doing yet? That's okay! Start tonight!!
The second thing that has been helpful to make books part of our routine is to let them explore! Invite them to look at the pictures, touch the words, and turn the pages. My kids aren't always keen to settle into reading so sometimes we just point out different things about the illustrations. Talking about the pictures makes it fun for them to pull the books out on their own to "read".
Lastly, building space into routine for finding new books together. We are lucky that one of the few things to do with kids in our very small community is to go to the library. We go a few times each month throughout the year but every summer we go weekly to participate in their Summer Reading Program. Not only does it provide consistency but also seeing other kids reading and enjoying books normalizes books as well!
3. Make Real Life Connections!
This is probably my favorite tip. I love themed book selections!! We have seasonal books, holiday related books, vacation themed books, books about birthdays and have even had birthday themed around books we've read. Many times if we were are headed out on a long road trip, we stop into the library for a longer audiobook or pick up a few books related to our destination. It is so fun for them to have the connections to somewhere new and for us as they make the associations.
There is also a little bit of magic that comes each year as they pull out the books that we save for the winter holidays days. Their eyes sparkle just a bit more as we reread old favorites and they discover new books each Christmas!
4. Be a Reader!
Whether it seems like it or not, our children are watching everything we do. So it is only natural that if we want our kids to read, we ourselves need to be reading. I know not everyone likes reading or has an easy time reading but there are so many options available to us. Graphic novels, sports books, magazines, cookbooks, audiobooks, anything that gets us leading by example!
I hope these tips are helpful to you and your family and help inspire the little readers in your life to pick up books!
No comments:
Post a Comment