Tips #1-Read Aloud
The positive relationship between reading and academic achievement is well established and parents play a significant role. Reading aloud to your children is one prominent practice found to attribute to student success. Reading helps children construct a framework of knowledge for understanding the world around them. Children who read, and are read to, develop a larger vocabulary than non-readers. Reading aloud inceases vocabulary which expands a child’s background knowledge, helping him or her to grasp new concepts and information when it is introduced in the classroom or in life. In addition, reading aloud to children increases reading fluency and listening skills. This impactful practice can begin at birth and extend into the young adult years.
Tips #2-Model Reading
Parents who model the practice and enjoyment of reading motivate their children to do the same. A parent’s enjoyment of reading is contagious and signals to a child that reading is valued by the most influential person in his or her life. Modeling reading therefore, helps to instill a love for reading. The little girl in the photo is an example of parental influence. Unsolicited, this two year old reads to her two week old sister because reading has been modeled by the parents. Reading is an activity she has enjoyed since birth and now she is imitating this behavior for her sibling. A year later you find her reading to her little plastic friends (sitting on the couch in front of her). Her love for reading is growing with her.
What if you’re not a reader? Maybe you were not read to, or for whatever reason have never enjoyed reading. Give it another try? Not only was I not a reader growing up, but I had tremendous difficulty reading as a child. Other than reading the Bible as a teenager, I read nothing for pleasure. It was not until my Children’s Literature class in college, when I was required to read Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis and Black Beauty by Anna Sewell, that reading became an enjoyable activity. Shortly after college, on a long beach vacation, friends introduced me to the St. Simons Trilogy by Eugenia Price, wetting my appetite for St. Simons Island and spurring my quest for good books.
Tips #3-Read Good Books
Every morning, during the years our family homeschooled, I read historical fiction or biographies to our children. We read books in the car, waiting at restaurants, and on vacation. We visited the library every week and checked out piles of books. I believe the practice of reading good books was significant in helping my children construct a framework of knowledge about the world around them. Consider that books feed the soul. Therefore, I warn against adopting an attitude that any reading is better than no reading. I encourage you to review books or read reviews, make a habit of visiting the library, and begin reading as a family. This will help you appreciate the value in good literature. Establish a family reading time when everyone grabs his or her own book or magazine to read, or read a book together during family reading time. If you don’t know where to start, try an audio book. Children who have not developed a love for story or listening skills, may benefit from the audio book on a long car ride before introducing a time on the couch together.
Get Started
For children in the elementary grades try Trumpet of the Swan or Charlotte’s Web, both by E.B. White. Both are excellent books for reading aloud. Finding a book tied to a place or event you have experienced or plan to experience is another good place to start. Planning a trip to Washington DC? Before you leave, read a biography on a famous American, past and present. I read Brighty of the Grand Canyon by Marguerite Henry on a road trip out west when our children where 10 and 12. We stopped to read in an open meadow near Yosemite. Our daughter found a broken branch and began to whittle off the bark as I read. With every stop we made, that branch became more like the walking stick she envisioned for her hike in the Grand Canyon. My daughter, now in medical school, still has the walking stick propped up against the wall in her bedroom-an artifact and reminder of a treasured family experience.
Find time to read. Read to your children and let your children see you reading. You will find it rewarding.
Share your family's favorite book below.