Raising a Reader

As a child I spent many enjoyable hours reading for the joy of it and I had hoped that even with video games and computers available to waste away the hours, that my kids would develop the same love of books that I had as a youngster.

My youngest son and I are both avid readers, and I really enjoy the discussions we have about the books we are reading. He will ask me what is happening in my book and then he will tell me about the novel he is reading at the time. When we received the last Harry Potter book, "Deathly Hallows" in the mail we were both anxious to get right into it but to make it fair, agreed to take turns reading it. I would read it at night and he would read it during the day. During this time my daughter Savannah, who has not shown a lot of interest in reading in the past, kept asking us what was happening to Harry and company and my son and I refused to tell her? We advised her to read it for herself. In fact in order to really understand what was happening in the Deathly Hallows book I suggested that she should read the previous one, "The Half blood Prince". I was gob smacked when out of curiosity she actually picked it up and started to read. In fact she became so engrossed in it that she finished the 600+ page book in less than a week and to my delight has moved onto the Deathly Hallows.

Do whatever it takes to raise a reader. By showing your kids how much you love a good book you have a better chance of them wanting to follow suit. Let them see you reading and really enjoying yourself. Discuss what you are reading with them and encourage questions. If your children are too young to read you can read to them and make the book really interesting by changing your voice to suit each character or really emphasizing the exciting parts.

Happy Reading

Monicka