Just when you thought you had little ole Mocking Bird pegged, I’m throwing you a curve ball and am going to write about something I never write about. Today I will not be writing about anything to do with photography or cameras or Polaroids! Try to take your jaw from the floor, kids.
It occurred to me recently that I assume Mocking Bird readers know everything about me which is pretty stupid on my part. For those of you who haven’t read my About Page, I am actually a teacher by trade. Back in Australia, my day to day was a teacher of gorgeous little cherubs of the infant kind. I know a lot of you who swing by here have bubbas and I want to share something else that I am very passionate about other than photography.
Reading To Children
You probably already guessed that from my rather obvious title though, right? One thing that I am often asked by parents is “How do I get my kid to enjoy reading?” The simple answer is show them how.
There is a BRILLIANT piece of writing by Australian children’s author Mem Fox about how to inspire a love of reading and I urge you to read it.
These are some ways to inspire children to love books and reading:
- Love books yourself- children model their parents behaviour. If your child sees you reading books, enjoying books, buying books and sharing books, they will want to do the same thing.
- Fill your house with books and reading material- the saddest thing a teacher can hear from a student is that they don’t own any books. I am probably one of those boring people who always gives their friends’ babies books as presents but for a child to have their own library from the youngest age is SO important.
- Allocate daily reading time- whether it be an hour, 20 mins or 5 mins. 5 minutes a day is better than nothing at all.
- Go to the library and borrow books on a weekly basis.
- Allow them to borrow weekly from their school library by making sure they have their library bag on library day. School librarians are sticklers for not allowing borrowing without a bag.
- Discuss their favourite books and book characters- talk about books with your kids so that they are immersed in a book rich life.
- Draw and paint their favourite books- children learn to draw before reading and writing and it’s instinctively natural for them to want to create through drawing.
- Write stories together about characters in their favourite books- retell the story, change the ending, write a new complication (problem), make up back stories for the characters.
- Take photos of them reading and stick them on the fridge with “Darcy is reading” or “Darcy is a reader” written underneath- ha! I knew I’d get photography in there somehow.
- Call your children “readers” even if they are aged 3 and just turning the pages. It doesn’t matter that they aren’t physically reading the words- they are still “readers”.
Do all of this from birth. Books and reading need to be a part of a child’s life long before they get to school. Worrying about a child not being interested in books in Grade 1 or 2 is too late. They need a book rich life from birth.
I hope this list is helpful to some of you Mums and Dads out there. I’d love to know what some of your strategies are for inspiring kids to love books. I know there are lots of other ways and would love to hear your thoughts on this topic.
p.s. I hope this wasn’t too off topic for those of you without kids. I want to bring a bit more of my children oriented life into this blog because I’m really starting to miss working with them. I’m not teaching right now, so this is my little way of getting it out there.
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I am so excited about having kids one day because I’m super-excited about getting to read them bedtime stories! I used to love being read to as a child, and my favourites were Narnia and The Hobbit, which my dad read to me, doing all of the appropriate voices, which always made me squeal with laughter.
Reading is so much fun, and so important to a child’s education. I’m always so frustrated when parents blame teachers for the fact their child cannot read or write, why on earth has the parent not spent their time teaching them these skills themselves!?! It is such a great way to bond with your child and most importantly, have fun together.
I LOVE this post and all your points are fabulous. I hope you are having a great Easter Amanda! x
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My sister is about to have her first baby in August and I am encouraging her so much to read to her bump already and she has a little bookcase that we’re slowly filling with picture books. I’m training to be a librarian and I said as soon as the baby’s born, I’m going to sign it up to the library I work in! Visiting libraries make children avid readers I think.
Kate, I really look forward to the same things.
Ultimately, it is the teacher’s job to teach them how to read and write, but they definitely need more exposure to books and reading than just what they get at school. We don’t expect that children should be able to read and write before they come to Kindergarten but we do expect that they have been read to.
Children who start Kindergarten with a book rich life, whose parents have read to them are way out in front of those who have had no experience. I’m talking leaps and bounds here.
Helen, that is so awesome. Yes, libraries are so wonderful and I really hope that people continue to use them. I need to join the Vancouver Public Library.
I think my Lacey will have a passion for reading. She already does. We were lucky enough to get a whole batch of beautiful hand-me-down books that we read often. Thanks for the great tips. xx
I have been raised loving books, but honestly I’ve never thought of number seven. I’ll have to bookmark this for when I do have my own children someday!
our home is book central. when it comes to purging, only books seem to have staying power. #7 and #9 are new to me. i’ll have to try that at home. we also pretend to be the objects or characters in the book. last night my son was a “fire engine” so he pretended to squirt water all over us. finding ways for the stories to leap out of the pages is the way to ensure laughter. thanks for sharing the article as well.
thank you so much for this post!! It is SOOO important to read to your kids!! We LOVE the library–it is one of our favorite places. As much as I love to curl up and get cozy with a good book, it is so much fun to have my children on my lap reading with me. And now my oldest is starting to read to ME. I love it.
Excited for more “kid” posts:)
Angus’ mother (a very passionate Primary School teacher) had Mem Fox give a reading at her bookstore on the South Coast a couple of years back and ever since then I have been completely brainwashed by Mem. She is fantastic.
“Book rich life” – I love that description!
All of your advice is spot on, based on my childhood (no children myself yet). My mom’s a kindergarten teacher, so she probably has all sorts of tricks up her sleeve, but the most influential part of my childhood was natural. Reading was simply natural in my household. Books overflowed everywhere, my parents spent lots of their time reading, we took expeditions to used book stores and we talked a lot about books. No surprise that I ended up getting a degree in Russian literature :)
Chantelle, hand me down books are the best! I love when people give them to classrooms- you’d be surprised how little money there is in schools for books. I always have to find my own for my classroom.
Pumkyn, bookmark away! :)
Allyn, don’t kids love that? I always found acting out the books are just as much fun as reading them.
Sheena, thanks so much. I hope to definitely do more in the future. :)
Maria, that’s awesome! I have seen her speak once ( a professional literacy course I took through Scholastic) and she changed my ideas about literacy and writing forever. She is a powerhouse of passion and such a great speaker. She told us all about how long she works on one line of text- it’s incredible.
Dottie, you were lucky to have a Kindy teacher for a mom. It’s funny how being a teacher makes you excited to have kids of your own to teach all that you know. I admire you so much for having that degree. I’d love to go back to uni and study more literature.
Thanks for the comments everyone!
I sit with my little Jovie and go through some books – she thinks it’s so fun and is so proud of herself when she turns the pages and feels the different textures in the touchy feely books we have for them. She loves to point at the pictures and prompts me to read to her some more.
Every night without fail, Jasper sits with Regan and goes through the grown up’s books about Space. I’m certain because of this, he adores the Solar System and can name all the planets AND THEIR MOONS. He just loves information so much, and loves nothing more than sitting down to read books.
It’s so important – even for me, who doesn’t like books, to do this for our kids – so point 1 in your list is the best piece of advice I could give also.
Great post, reading to babies and children is so important – providing them with great life skills, a love of reading, encouraging imagination, and a great start to literacy – not to mention a special time to bond!
A great thing I did with my little boy when he was around 2, was create a photo album book with him. We would take photos of friends, family we dont get to see often, a duck we saw down the river, a toy, the park etc etc. We stuck the photos in an album and then talked about them – the great thing was he could do a lot of chatting about these photos and be fully involved in the story telling process.
Eek – I dont know why that photo came up with my comment – can you please delete it!
I still remember my mum taking me to the local library for the first time and me being amazed that all those books for for FREE to read! To this day, libraries and bookshops are my favorite hangouts.
I have just started reading “The Little Prince” to my 10-week old boy – I hope that he learns to love reading as much as I do.
Thanks for the post :)
Such a wonderful post on something so important! I absolutely adore books…my three year old daughter does too and it makes me so very happy. She’s thrilled when I take her to the library or bookstore and she loves reading ‘storybooks’ with me (or her Daddy) every night. Reading has brought me so much enjoyment over the years, I can only hope that it will offer the same to her throughout her lifetime :)
Tracey, those touchy books are the best. My little baby cousin has them too. Jasper is such a clever boy. He knows all that stuff because you guys are such good parents.
Diane, that is a brilliant idea! We do something similar in the Kindy classes- we take photos of all the places and important people in the school and label them in the classroom. BTW, I sent you an email about your gravatar.
Lidija, I love that book! Yeah, bookshops and libraries…
Bekkah, thanks for commenting. Your little girl sounds very lucky to have a mum like you.
It’s so great to hear about so many amazing parents doing these things with their kids. You could easily assume that every parent is that invested in their child’s learning but sadly, it’s not always the case.
Thanks for the great comments everyone!
This is a great post ! I’ll have some friends with young kids read it ! I loved books so much when I was a little girl … (And still do, of course !)
Great post. Thank you for sharing your enthusiasm with me. My kids love to read too. At first it seemed they couldn’t find anything that would keep their attention for more than a few minutes. Then they found the Disney Fairies, Tinkerbell in particular and now can’t seem to get enough. They are very excited about a new graphic novel (comic book) that is coming out April 13th. It’s called Disney Fairies:Prilla’s Talent. We will be in line at the bookstore but hey…whatever keeps them reading.
Yes after she did the reading at the bookshop she also gave a presentation to a whole bunch of South Coast teachers. Even though I have no interest in teaching, no children, and (at the time) didn’t know her books TOO well, I was completely mesmerised.
<3 - exactly what my mother has always said too.
i love this post! i don’t even have kids, but i love talking about reading and i love thinking about how the love of it can be ingrained in us, thanks, amanda!
Amanda, this is a fabulous post. I have three kids and only two really like reading (of which one is only about to start learning). I used to work on women’s and girls basic literacy in UNESCO and am an avid bookie. Funnily enough – it’s my eldest who doesn’t like reading at all, inspite of my efforts to find things she would really be interested in. I have even accompanied her class to the library and secretly sneak a peak at the books she flips through before choosing!! She was also the one most read to in the family – but the one most annoyed with flipping pages in the beginning.
You have given me new food for thought though. Lovely lovely lovely!!
nice post. and i love the photo!
What an interesting topic! I don’t have kids, but I have a 9 years old niece. She loves going to the bookstore and buying books but because she reads slowly I am not sure she actually understands and focuses on the content rather than trying to read something to only say she has read it. It is starting to change though, and it’s good that she has the habit of carrying a book around with her.
I’ve been looking for Little Women to give her since it was my favourite book when I was her age, but I can’t find the old edition that I read – I remember it had a gorgeous illustration on the front and I know she would love it :)
p.s. I am one of those people who give books as presents too. Always :) There is no better gift!
Great post!
In addition to reading…I’ve gotten my 8 yr. old nephew hooked on Polaroids, too.
He’s a terrific little photographer.
The only problem is…he doesn’t quite understand why he can’t just shoot…and shoot…and shoot. Thank goodness for The Impossible Project, but, my poor, poor wallet.