It's early evening, and at first, there is quiet in the living room. Then nine-year-old Georgia giggles from where she sprawls under the window on the couch. She has reached a funny part of her novel. Kevin, 14, recites aloud an interesting fact from the website he is perusing at the small computer desk tucked into the corner of the room. Sophie, 12, longingly mentions an ad describing a horse for sale in her magazine and nudges her mother to look. Mom, sitting beside her on the second couch, pauses from reading the weekend newspaper and responds, for the millionth time, with a firm but sympathetic, "Hmm. Sounds like a good one, but we can't get a horse!"
It's a cosy 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 a result of some simple, thoughtful strategies that I've incorporated into my family's daily life, with only a little extra juggling and manoeuvring! Here are 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 own reading for the hours 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 nonfiction 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 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. Phyllis Simon, owner of Kidsbooks in Vancouver, says: "If a parent makes the effort to take a child to a place where books abound then it says to the child that books are important. It's a powerful statement to a child."
Turn off the television.
That's what Ken Setterington, children and youth advocate of the Toronto Public Library recommends. Setterington is coauthor 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.
Visit our online forums to chat with other parents!
Page 1 of 2
