Lets face it, getting a kid interested in\u00a0reading has never been an easy task at the best of times, but in this era of\u00a0ever decreasing attention spans it can seem impossible even to get a grown\u00a0adult to read, let alone a young child.<\/p>\n
It has now become a matter of evolutionary importance to buck this\u00a0alarming trend, and with immediate effect. So how do we get our kids focused on\u00a0reading?<\/p>\n
Lets explore a few ideas.<\/p>\n
1) Limiting time spent in\u00a0front of the TV<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
Starting with the obvious, just don\u2019t let\u00a0them sit in front of the TV all day. Make sure time is made for outdoor play\u00a0and reading. I can distinctly remember all my friends having Game Boys when I\u00a0was younger. There was nothing I wanted more, but my dad was adamant. Play\u00a0outside, read a book, he would say.<\/p>\n
Which I invariably did, not that I didn\u2019t\u00a0hate him for it at the time, but books became fun, reading became fun.<\/p>\n
It\u00a0probably helped that TV was far more limited back then (we only had 4 channels)\u00a0and the Internet had barely begun to take hold but that doesn\u2019t mean we aren\u2019t\u00a0still in control. Switch everything off, grab a couple of books and get stuck\u00a0in.<\/p>\n
2) Create a special place<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
Kids love dens. The best school libraries\u00a0have little corners with beanbags that are hidden away from everything. I loved\u00a0spending playtimes there, reading book after book after book.<\/p>\n
See if you can\u00a0create a similar den with your kids at home, grab an old mattress and flip it\u00a0upside down to make a tent, hang a blue sheet over it so it feels like you\u2019re\u00a0under the sea, decorate it with favourite toys and create a little makeshift\u00a0bookshelf in the corner where you both go to read and hide.<\/p>\n
You can make it anything you like! So by\u00a0making a special place in your home for reading, you start to develop a special\u00a0place in your kid\u2019s heart, for books. \u00a0Honestly though, who doesn\u2019t love a den?<\/p>\n
3) Book hunts<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
Now this is a weird one but bear with me. I love the idea behind \u2018book crossing\u2019, where people register books online and leave them behind in secret or public places for someone to pick up.<\/p>\n
You can then trace your book around the world, watch it travel, and pick one up yourself to read. I think a similar initiative geared at children would be a magnificent idea, not only does it add adventure, it ignites the imagination about the wider world.<\/p>\n
I can stare at a map of the world for hours; I don\u2019t think that will ever change.<\/p>\n
How wonderful to a child to be able to track the very book in his hands, to see where it has been and where it might go. I think at the end of the day reading is about curiosity, about satisfying a desire to shed light on some unknown, a search for something.<\/p>\n
What better way to kindle that curiosity than to literally conduct a search, a hunt that results in a treasure, a book, and the story within; a story that the child will likely cherish far more because he found it.<\/p>\n
4) Read to them<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
This is another\u00a0obvious one. Read to your children, read with passion and love, read with\u00a0excitement and energy. Passion is contagious; they will never forget these\u00a0shared moments.<\/p>\n
Visit the library; curate a great selection that you know they\u00a0will enjoy. Show them how much there is out there, so many different stories,\u00a0different writers, subjects, and ideas.<\/p>\n
Encourage them to make their own\u00a0choices of what they want you to read to them, that way bedtime won\u2019t come soon\u00a0enough!<\/p>\n
5) Live the stories<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
Another slightly weird one, but I honestly\u00a0it works. Live the stories you read together, talk about them, play them out.\u00a0Bring them to life together, craft experiences that relate to them.<\/p>\n
I loved\u00a0reading stories as a child and seeing them come to life before me, and I would\u00a0<\/span>see my life as a story, my life as an adventure just like the one in the books.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n It is actually this process that made me want to write my own stories.\u00a0<\/span>Nurturing the imagination in this way, bringing it to life, should always have\u00a0<\/span>them coming back for more.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n It is ultimately the responsibility of the\u00a0parents to get their children started on reading. One thing is for certain; you\u00a0<\/span>can\u2019t rely purely on the school to do the job for you. <\/span><\/p>\n Every parent should\u00a0<\/span>ultimately know what\u2019s best for their child, but if you make the process fun,\u00a0<\/span>create your own adventures and make your own stories, you will never be far off\u00a0<\/span>the mark.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Lets face it, getting a kid interested in\u00a0reading has never been an easy task at the best of times, but in this era of\u00a0ever decreasing attention spans it can seem impossible even to get a grown\u00a0adult to read, let alone a young child. It has now become a matter of evolutionary importance to buck this\u00a0alarming […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":204,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[1],"tags":[10,13,9,12,11,7,5],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stackofbooks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stackofbooks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stackofbooks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stackofbooks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stackofbooks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.stackofbooks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":262,"href":"https:\/\/www.stackofbooks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205\/revisions\/262"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stackofbooks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stackofbooks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stackofbooks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stackofbooks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}