In building a lifelong relationship with books and reading, the desire has to come from within, writes our Happiness Formula columnist
“I don’t want to. It’s boring.”
“Daddy doesn’t read books so why should I?”
These hard statements that tell the truth about a lot of today’s kids and how they feel about books can be difficult to stomach. After all, how your child feels about what they do is key to doing it in the first place.
According to Sam Leith, the author of the recent The Haunted Wood: A History of Childhood Reading, “A child who discovers the unique pleasures found only in books will develop a habit that lasts a lifetime.”
So how do you get from “Do I have to?” to “I want to!”? Let’s get a couple of things out of the way first. Learning to read—whether through guessing and predicting text or having children decode each letter of the alphabet to form a word, or having read-alouds and small guided reading groups — is the first step. Instruction aside, if a child doesn’t feel like reading, even if he can, he won’t.
There was a time when a limited number of TV channels dictated how leisure time was spent. Books were a viable alternative to “nothing to watch” or “too cold to play outside.”
Not so today.
The number of choices that kids have to spend their downtime is massive. Whether the activities are worthwhile or deliberate distractions is moot. Again, if your daughter wants to read, she will regardless of life’s menu offerings.
The parameters you set by reading to your son on a regular basis before his first year is out, will speak volumes. Having your child see you pick up a book as opposed to seeing you pick up your iPhone is huge.
Having a quiet time where books figure prominently as a family activity, when begun early, shows your kids that this is a natural way of being and relaxing together. Equating down time with looking at books, reading them together to gradually reading on one’s own is a natural progression that works best when begun early. Though gearing down overstimulation by chilling out with a book works wonders for one’s wellbeing at any age.
Back to this whole idea of feeling like it. What if the reading tradition isn’t happening in your home? Begin it and add trips to the library–ostensibly for other activities there but you never know how a roomful of books may play on your child. And if they’ve gone to see Charlotte’s Web, any of the Harry Potter movies or even Dune, you might let them know there’s a book behind them all.
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