There is content in this post. To get to it, you have to make your way through this over-sized picture of the books on my bedside table.
{I know! The books on my bedside table! Things around here just get more fascinating every day, don’t they?}
Add this to the long list of things I don’t get: Why my only options for uploading this picture to my post were GIANT or teensy. (I went with GIANT – or was that already perfectly clear?).
And now I’m going to be really honest with you. I had a post in mind, it was about reading (see? there was a point to the enormo-picture), but it was so boring I fell asleep while writing it. Then my five year old revealed that his stomach hurt, and promptly started throwing up. After that, not even my post could induce sleep for any of us.
After a day spent disinfecting every surface of our home, washing mountains of bedding and clothes, rendering my hands raw from compulsive washing, I’m pretty sure of two things:
- God should have set things up so that vomit is never necessary, particularly for children. It’s such a cruel sickness, particularly for those in charge of the cleaning up.
- There is no salvaging my post about reading.
I did write another post about reading – about instilling a love of books in your children – and it’s over here today, at the Reading Kingdom blog. So, you know, you could go read that.
I do have a question for you, though. And you’re just going to have to use your imaginations and pretend you read a thoughtful post from me, all about teaching kids to read.
I realize that I send them to school for that sort of thing. It’s not my sole responsibility to teach them to read, thank goodness, or we’d be breaking the chain of literacy in the Stevens family. But – and correct me if I’m wrong here – one of my jobs as a parent (after cleaning up vomit and before it’s not polite to do that in public), is to help further their educations.
As we prepare for our oldest to start kindergarten, we want to set him up for, at the very least, moderate success (we’re not crazy helicopter parents or anything. yet.). I think we’ve done a great job of sharing our love for reading. Both of my boys love to listen to stories and often choose to “read” on their own. But I don’t know where to take it from here. Should we be doing more?
And that has me wondering…
:: What kinds of things do you do to encourage reading at home?
:: Do you know how to teach someone to read?
:: Is teaching them to love reading as important as teaching to read? For me, the two go together, but I’m guessing that’s not the case for everyone.
Lapsed homemaker. Looking to hire a full-time housekeeper who will work for the sheer joy of a job well done and free coffee. Interested parties, DM please. 
We are a crazy reading family. My kids have “read” since a very young age and this summer alone have read about 15 books each (a book only counts if it is over 150 pages and doesn’t have pictures).
They do it because they love it. I often wonder if this was something I did which instilled that love in them or just how they arrived on this planet.
I’d like to think I created this nice feature and had nothing at all to do with their horrid eating habits. *la la la la* {me with fingers in ears ignoring any na-sayers}.
I love posts about books and reading. I’m always looking for good book recos, but usually when I tweet or FB about it, I forget to write them down.
We’ve been reading with the kids since the twins were newborns, and they’ve been big readers ever since, as in they would let me read to them for a good 45 minutes when I was pregnant and on the couch with Zoe. But with Zoe came chaos and less reading, so we’re trying to get back into it. And it’s apparent that Zoe’s not as accustomed to it as her sisters were at the same age. Honestly sometimes I avoid trying because I fear the resistance that may come, even though they almost always get interested once I start.
Reading was always part of the bedtime ritual, so the attention, cuddles, and stories became very special to them. I also let them read to me throughout the day, no matter how they read. (Telling made up stories from the books or real reading).
The BOB book set was one of the best investments I ever made in starting them out reading.
I’m sorry….give me a minute to get past the vomit! UGH!! I hope your little guy feels better soon!!
Okay, reading! My boys love it! Have they read as much as they should this summer, probably not. But we’ve been busy. However, whenever the older boys have quiet time in their rooms they are reading books.
I think teaching them the love of reading is more important than teaching them to actually read. That comes with time and schooling. Of course you have to help them work on what they’ve learned at school on the homefront. But fostering a love of reading, once its ingrained, its hard to lose!
I can’t focus on this post because I’m trying to figure out how to get you to send me some of those lovely books when you’re done.
Pssshhh, I act like I don’t have a library already or something.
Okay. So forgive me if the response to your post is GIANT and not teeny.
I’m an English teacher. And a writer. And a reader. And a mother.
So yeah. Reading is about as important to me as it can be for any person. You can’t get more invested in time, money, energy and emotion than I am. I don’t think. (not without vomiting, I’m pretty sure.)
And what I’ve seen is that you can’t MAKE a kid love reading (damn I wish you could. I’d pay big money or spend a lot of time and do anything to make them LOVE it).
What you can do is model a love of reading; and make reading as comfortable and enjoyable and rewarding as possible; and never associate it with punishment – ie: you watched too much TV now you HAVE to read for 30 minutes (in my humble opinion this is not productive).
I have birthed two children from this same book-loving body only 24 months apart. I read all the same books and had similar environments for both their early childhoods. My son LOVES to read and my daughter….doesn’t. (shoot me now.)
So I let her pick the spot and the book and the duration of the session and I tickle her back or rub her legs and offer all kinds of awesome (indirect) bribes to make it as wonderful as possible. She’s twelve so she reads on her own but we did the “i read to her” stage and the “she reads to me” stage and the “i read a page she reads a page” stage; but now, she is on her own. Pretty much has to be.
She reads the bare minimum I set aside and I joke about it and keep it light and say, “YAYAYAYAY it’s time to READ your favorite time of DAY where are we doing to read TODAY??? and what part of your legs or arms or back am I tickling while we do it???”
I try to stay so positive and make it fun and I want her to love it. But she still doesn’t. Sadly.
My sister hated reading. My husband hated reading. They grew up in book-loving families and now they love to read.
So they both say Karly will come around and will eventually love reading. She knows how. She’s good at it. She just doesn’t want to be told she has to enjoy it.
But it’s so important. Okay. So now. My question is this:
Are you sorry you asked? Or that I answered? Or both?
My apologies in advance. I feel strongly about this. Obviously.
Yes, we just read at home a ton. I didn’t teach my kids to read, but that is exactly what happens through reading to them–preparedness. Kindergarten taught my older son to read and by 1st grade he was reading at a fifth grade level.
My nightstand looks like yours! Well, i don’t have those books but i have TONS of books beside my bed. We read a lot here, but I still stress over whether or not I’m doing enough. My oldest is going to First this year. We have yet to review his word list & he hasn’t read as much as he was supposed to this summer. I signed him up for a reading class this summer that meets once a week for an hour & a half. I am praying that helps make up for where I have slacked off!
Everyone is a reader in my family. We have a mini-library full of books in our home. We go to the bookstore and also encourage reading during her free time. I think reading offers some of the best conversations. I hope my daughter eventually feels that way too.
I have this same question as my little ones approach preschool. I feel like I am just winging it at this point by reading to them all. the. time. and hoping that they love books as much as I do. I love the tips Julie left in her comment.
Others have already answered your first question, but I’m with Julie in that modeling your own love for reading goes a long way toward passing that on to your kids. I’m an elementary teacher, so yes, I do know how to teach reading, but I think teaching them to love it is so much more important than just teaching the skill of it. For kids that don’t (and I’m beginning to wonder if my second child will be like Julie’s and just won’t be as into it as my older one already is), I like to think that they just haven’t met the right genre yet. Maybe they will love a certain type of nonfiction or love magazines or (gasp) blogs rather than the straightforward love of novels that many self-proclaimed booklovers enjoy. I think you’re doing a great job, and as a teacher, I’m so grateful that you are asking yourself these questions!
P.S. I agree about the vomit. It shouldn’t be allowed, especially not in children. Ack.