The summer months are an ideal time to sell your child on reading. Your job: to entice your child into books, to structure the opportunity and to create an atmosphere that's reader-friendly.
1. Set an example. Read regularly in your child's presence and talk about what you're reading with him.
2. Read to your child -- every day, and whether she's three or 13. Read to on a daily basis, a young child learns how language works and about how written texts are structured. A literate kindergartener can tell you that fairytales begin with, "Once upon a time," and end with, "...and they lived happily ever after."
Family reading hours can be wonderful. I remember with fondness my family's introduction to Harry Potter. We were staying at a cottage in Cape Breton and each night before bed my husband or I would read a chapter of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone to our then-8-year-old. I don't know which I enjoyed more – the evenings I read, or those when I listened to my husband read.
3. Try reading only the first chapters of a novel to an older child and then letting him take over if and when he expresses the desire to do so. A good strategy is to read up to the point where your child simply must know what happens next and then getting up and turning off the light. Of course, you will leave the book within easy reach for some under-the-covers reading.
4. Think about books on tape. Ideal for long car trips, these can be short picture storybooks or novels such as The Indian in the Cupboard and the works of Charles Dumas. They are widely available through public libraries and can often be borrowed for extended summer loans. Just be prepared to find yourself sitting in the parking lot at your destination, listening to the end of the chapter. Be crafty: find copies of other books written by the same author for your child to read once you reach your destination.
Page 1 of 2 -- From visits to the library and choosing fun comic books, find ways to encourage your child's love for reading on page 2
