Get your kids reading

Build a home library.
Studies have linked the sheer numbers of books you have in your home with your child's success at school. Try to build up your collection of children's books. Purchase books inexpensively at school book fairs, garage sales and secondhand stores. Your local library might have a shelf for discontinued books. Mention to friends and family that gift certificates for bookstores make great presents. Load up your own shelves with library books of all types and keep them circulating.

Read aloud to your children.
Cuddling up with a child and sharing the intimacy of a storybook strengthens a child's relationship to books, and, as Simon points out, "it creates a lovely bond between a child and an adult." Bedtime is a popular time for reading together, but try to find other occasions as well.

Choose special reading places.
Throw blankets over the kitchen table and read together in your secret fort. Dedicate one place in the house as a "reading corner." Add pillows and maybe even a comforter for snuggling. Make sure a cache of books is within easy reach.

Read aloud to your older children, too.
Don't stop reading to your kids when they become able to read on their own. Wendy Tamminen still frequently reads aloud to her 13-year-old daughter, Heather. It doesn't happen on a nightly basis however. "Reading to Heather when she was younger was a scheduled event. Now it has become more project oriented. We find a book we want to read together, and then we'll read every day because we're so totally into it and we want to find out what's going to happen." Sometimes Wendy chooses the book, most recently Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. "I might choose things that are a little more classic, things Heather might not be aware of. Sometimes I might pick something at a higher level than she might choose herself." Other times it's Heather who makes the choice. She recently read a book that she loved and so insisted that their next read-aloud be another book by that author. To this pair, it's a win-win situation. Why not give it a try?

Boys will be boys
Heather A. Blair, an associate professor in language and literacy education at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, studies the out-of-school reading preferences of adolescent boys. She finds that they prefer different reading materials than girls: "Reading interests align with life interests. Boys tend to read more nonfiction and digital text." By "digital text," Blair means words and images that appear on screens, including computer games, video games and even phone text-messaging. Just take a look in boys' backpacks. Spot the sports and video game magazines, comic books and trading cards? "Many boys don't read the kinds of novels that we consider ‘reading' -- but they are still reading," says Blair.

Reading doesn't only count when the words are in a book or magazine. Parents have to learn to think beyond the traditional notion of literacy. How to make sure boys keep at it? "Let them explore," says Blair. There are many things to read that don't look like books, such as comics, the sports pages in newspapers and game directions. "Read along with them. Observe their online and digital reading and get a sense of what kinds of text they encounter. Talk to them about what they are reading and what they like to read."

For more information visit education.ualberta.ca/boysandliteracy.

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