Kids and Reading

This past weekend I went to Chicago and spent the weekend with my friend Erin, her husband and their two small children. While I was there, I saw some of my favorite children's books and was reminded of all the happy hours I spent reading to my kids. As you know, reading is my favorite thing to do, so needless to say, it was my favorite thing to do with my kids. When I couldn't play another game of Chutes and Ladders or my daughter's favorite imaginary game, "pretend preschool," I would declare it reading time.

For sometimes an hour or more, my kiddies and I would sit on the couch cuddled up under a blanket and read book after book. I really like reading out loud (and fancy myself rather good at reading kids' books--How I Became a Pirate and Chica Chica Boom Boom are my specialties!) and the kids miraculously would sit enraptured by the sounds and the pictures. Of course, they had their favorites and I was not above hiding books I couldn't bear to read one more time. When my daughter was really little (around two) her absolute favorite was this big book of Mother Goose nursery rhymes. They are classics and I enjoyed the book, but it got to the point where I just couldn't read the book the twenty five times a day she wanted with her favorites repeated even more times than that. So one day she came to me asking for it. I knew it was on the floor at my feet in front of the couch, so before she could notice, I slid it right under the couch with my foot. It stayed "lost" for about two weeks while I regained my sanity and she got a little less obsessed.

On a side note, another time after we had not read that book for a while, she asked if we could read the book with, in her words, "Little Bo Muffet" and "Little Bit Poop." We still joke about that! :-)

Not only did my husband and I read with the kids all the time, but we both also read on our own all the time and our house overflows with books, newspapers and magazines. People always ask what we did with our kids to get them to be such early and voracious readers ("flash cards?" they ask, or "Hooked on Phonics?") We tell them quite honestly that we did nothing except read with them. We've never had enforced reading time or rewards for reading or done any special program. Instead, we just live in a reading household.

That, I think, is the best way to get kids to read. Have lots of books around so they always have something interesting to pick up. Do lots of reading yourself so they see how fun and "normal" it is. Read with them as kids--help them see how books open and close and how writing goes from left to right, see the front and back of the book, see the pictures and the words, and most importantly see the pure entertainment value of a good story. Turning kids into readers doesn't require any special knowledge or program. It just requires a library card and carving out lots of time for reading. Something I am always up for! :-)