How to Instill the Love of Reading – In Your Child, or Yourself

“I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.” - Jorge Luis Borges

Source: Written by Leo Babauta, http://zenhabits.net/how-to-instill-the-love-of-reading-in-your-child-or-yourself/

A teen-ager wrote to me the other day, asking how he could build the habit of reading — he spends too much time on Facebook and playing video games.

The short answer: read amazing, fun, exciting, lovely books that you just can’t put down!
 
I’ve been a lifelong reader, so the pleasure of a good book is one of my favorite things in the world. I love to lose myself in the world of a novel, to become best friends with a character, to curl up in the silence of the early morning or late night hours, wrapped in the deliciousness of a book.

I think many people approach reading the wrong way: they try to force themselves to read, and see reading as a difficult and tedious chore. Well, if that’s how you look at reading, no wonder you don’t have the habit!
Instead, see it as a wonderful thing. Reading is a joy. It is a time of peace, of adventure, of exploration, of just enjoying a good story. If you learn to love reading, as I do and as many others do, it’s not really a habit you have to develop — it’s something you look forward to doing each day.

On Reading Being Good For You
First let’s take a look at a deeply entrenched concept: that reading is wholesome and healthy and Good For You. Well, I think it is, but is it inherently better than any of a thousand other activities? Maybe sometimes.
Is reading a book better than playing outside? Better than a good conversation? Better than exploring websites on a topic that excites you? Better than exploring nature? Better than playing sports? Better than drawing or painting or playing music or dancing?

I don’t think so. I think each activity has its own benefits and pleasures.

Is reading better than watching TV? I tend to believe it is, if learning is important to you, but not necessarily so if pleasure is your main concern. Both activities can be pleasurable in their own way.

Is reading better than playing video games? This will be controversial, but I’m not so sure it is. Read this article for more about the learning advantages of playing video games.

Reading might be better than many activities if your main concern is educating yourself and improving your chances of succeeding in various careers. However … reading is more than a means to an end … reading is an end in and of itself. It’s a joy, and that’s how you should approach it.

If you gain a side benefit of becoming better prepared for school and life, well … so much the better!

Reading and Children
Many parents are concerned because their kids aren’t readers. Well, I wouldn’t worry so much. What’s more important is that you are loving and compassionate towards them, that you instill a love for learning (by any means) and give them the tools they need to explore whatever they’re excited about.

How do you do that? By not forcing them to learn, but by being a role model for them and showing your enthusiasm for learning, by exposing them to all kinds of exciting things and talking with them about it and learning about these things together (when they’re interested), by helping them explore things that excite them (whatever those things are).

However, if you’d like them to learn the love of reading you yourself have, there are things you can do that are consistent with the philosophy in the paragraph above.

Start by reading to your child. You can start from the moment he’s born (or earlier), but whenever you start is good. Read fun books, exciting books, adventurous books. Here’s a good place to start: Best All-Time Children’s Books.

Make reading fun. Make it a time of bonding between the two of you. Make it something your child looks forward to doing each day. Do not make reading a forced thing — encourage it, make it fun, don’t force them to read if they don’t want to.

Make it a routine — do it at the same time(s) of day, in the same place, such as at night in bed or in the morning in a favorite chair or couch — because children find comfort in routines.
 
Also make it a habit to go to the library regularly — and read with your child there. Help your child find books that interest her. Visit used book stores (and new bookstores too).

Provide a variety of reading materials for your child, about topics she’s interested in. Lots of books, lots of magazines, websites, etc.

And be a model — read yourself. Do it every day, and let your child see how much you love reading. He’ll pick up on it.

Finding Amazing Books
Whether you’re trying to instill the love of reading in your child or yourself, the key is in finding books that you just can’t put down. If you find that, the rest is easy.
 
Easier said than done? True — every person will have different preferences for authors, genres and so on. You can’t just read a definitive list of books online, start from the top, and work your way down.
That said, you can start with my lists of amazing books:

• 50 Amazing and Essential Novels to Enrich Your Library
• 20 Amazing and Essential Non-fiction Books to Enrich Your Library

That’s just a start, of course. Check out sites such as GoodReads to see recommendations from others based on books you know you like. Explore books at the bookstore or library — just pick up a book and start reading for 10-20 minutes and see if it grabs you. Sometimes a good book takes a little while to develop, of course, but many great ones will hook you from the first page and keep you going from there.  

Read more: 20 Ways to Get Free or Cheap Books
For the aforementioned teen who is looking to develop the habit of reading, I can recommend some of my favorites from my teen-age years (or thereabouts):

• The Catcher in the Rye
• To Kill a Mockingbird
• Watership Down
• The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series
• Piers Anthony’s Xanth fantasy series (starting with A Spell for Chameleon (Xanth, Book 1))
• Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series (starting with The Color of Magic)
• Lord of the Flies
• The Giver
• The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings series
• The Chronicles of Narnia

A couple really popular ones my teen or pre-teen kids have enjoyed recently include the Twilight series, Inkheart, Bridge to Terabithia, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Eragon and of course, Harry Potter Paperback Box Set (Books 1-6).

The Habit of Reading
If you’re serious about creating the habit of reading, what’s important is finding a time you can read every single day — often that’s early morning or late at night (or both). For others, it might be during their lunch break. You only need to read for 10-20 minutes a day to form the habit.

Also find a place that’s comfortable, and read there every time. Make sure it has decent lighting, that the temperature is nice, that you’re in a good chair or couch or someplace that you can relax in without falling asleep (although there’s nothing wrong with sleep).

Be sure to shut off distractions such as the TV, Internet, phones, Blackberry or iPhone, radio or other music. Let reading be a quiet tim.

In forming habits, you want to be as consistent as possible. So mark an “x” on your calendar every day you do the habit, and try to keep your unbroken streak of “x”es going as long as possible (Jerry Seinfeld’s trick).
A habit is much easier to form if it’s something you enjoy, not something you’re forcing yourself to do. So make the time you spend reading a joy — see the next section.

“We shouldn’t teach great books; we should teach a love of reading.” - B.F. Skinner

The Joy of Reading
The habit of reading is not as important as the joy of reading. As a bonus, though, if you discover or nurture the joy of reading, the habit becomes much much easier.

How to you discover the joy of reading? Well, start by finding amazing books, as I discussed above. If a book bores you, move on to another. Find a book with a main character you love, doing things that excite you or give you joy.

But beyond the book itself is everything else that surrounds you — where you sit, how quiet it is, how comfortable you are. You want the experience to be as pleasurable as possible. For some, that might be reading while taking a hot bath (reading in the shower is more difficult). For others, that might be with a hot cup of tea or coffee. For still others, it’s reading in the park, near a river or lake or ocean, on their front porch as the sun rises.

Whatever works for you, but make it something to look forward to.

Don’t force yourself to read — do it because it’s fun and enjoyable. If you treat it like a chore, it will feel like one. If you treat it like a treat, that’s what it will be. Make reading a voluntary thing, a hobby, a passion.

Learn to immerse yourself in the world of a book, and forget about the world around you. This is related to being in the moment, or finding the state of Flow — time seems to disappear, and nothing else exists but your book.

If you have kids or grandkids, read to them. Snuggle up close on the couch or bed, and read a good book. It’s great quality time, and it helps you enjoy reading more as well. Reading chapter books, such as BFG or Matilda or the Hobbit or Harry Potter, is a great experience for both child and adult.

You might also try reading groups in your area, or discussion groups online. Discussing a book is a great way to make reading fun, to motivate yourself to read, to get deeper into a book.

Finally, consider a reading log or journal, if you enjoy things like that. It can be fun to look back on what you have read, and writing in a journal is a great way to reflect on what you’ve read and amplify the joy of reading.

A Bunch of Advice to Parents of Kids Learning French

 We heard loud and clear your request for more conversation time and for more opportunities for children to express themselves. This is why we extended the coaching session and used it as a means to get their input and discussed strategies on how to stay focused. Also, we decided to create two groups because of the difference in the level of French amongst students. We make use of multimedia (PP presentations, pictures, videos, songs) on a weekly basis to keep kids engaged and to get the children to speak about different topics. This helps also to retain their attention.

We decided to tweak the program a bit given the different personalities in the class

I have been asked many times for a French reading site that kids can practice at home. One of the best resource is called Tumblebooks. Just pick a book in French or English, and you have the option of it reading to you, or your child may read by himself/herself.

We are having lots of fun and we hope your kids are enjoying the sessions. We put in a lot of time and thought into developing an enriching French program for the kids and your feedback is only going to help us make it better.

Parents, please encourage the rewriting of the new words or sentences a number of times (5 to 10 times) to memorize them. We also want them to memorize the songs we practiced. There is no better way to learn the structure of French sentences. Songs will help them in their writing and essays.

I hope all of you are doing great. I am thrilled with some results that we start seeing in some of your children. They are getting much more comfortable, they sing louder and are much more active in the learning. Parents, if you are helping at home, keep up the good work! It really does make a difference when kids are supported at home in their French learning.

We were asked if the next winter session starting in January will be a repeat. The answer is NO. We will have a new theme at every session throughout the year from September to June. Children can join anytime as the classes are taught independently. However a child who has been attending more classes will automatically be able to recognize more words and be more familiar with French sounds and reading.

This Grammarathon and Readathon Program is designed to help your kids do better at school by improving their reading comprehension, their writing and oral skills. We follow the Ontario Curriculum for French Immersion. The focus is to provide a challenge appropriate for their level. The 2.5 hours are intense and packed with various academic activities. But we make it fun and we also sing. The sparkle in their eyes is confirmation enough that they are enjoying it. And when I see them improving and mastering new sentences, it just makes my day :)

Parents, make sure they are well rested and had a good breakfast in the morning to maximize the benefits of the session. As I mentioned in a previous email, I encourage the rewriting of new words or sentences a number of times (5 to 10 times) to memorize them. Learn the songs we practiced! There is no better way to learn the structure of French sentences. Songs will help them in their writing and essays. Children do better at school when you support their French learning at home.

Learning a language is not a matter of reading and memorizing some vocabulary words. “Acquiring a language is learning a skill “ just like learning the skill of riding a bike”. Practice makes perfect! Practice in this case is to read, listen, write and speak. Those are the four areas that we focus on at My French Club. When words are put in a context, in a story or in a song, suddenly words come to life and words as well as structure can be memorized better.

It takes time to learn a language. Be patient and support your children’s French education at home. You will find plenty of resources on our website http://www.myfrenchclub.ca along with some valuable advice on the blog. And if that is not enough, feel free to drop me an email with your questions :)

Listening to French music is highly beneficial for your little ones and it will stick to their long term memory. It teaches them the sounds of the French language…yes, every language has its own music, its own melody. We picked a very trendy catchy tune “elle me dit” by Mika. It has lots of rhymes and easy sentences that kids can reuse in their essays or oral conversation. We give the chance to every kid to read it out loud many times and we explain to them the lyrics. We were so excited and jolly, I wish you parents were there to see us :) However at this point, I am done! My kids have been playing it nonstop at home, that I can’t get it out of my head! If you have the same problem, let me know. We’ll place a group order for earplugs :)

Regarding the program, well we are very lucky! We almost have as many students as mentors. So your kids are getting lots of one on one attention. Every kid was greeted with a unique card that has a positive affirmation for him/her. I had also developed activities for each one of them because even though some of them are in the same grade, the levels of competency vary.

Please refer to the booklet of your child to see what was covered. Kindly ask your child to write 10 times the new words or new sentences in order to memorize them better.

Learning a language is not a matter of reading and memorizing some vocabulary words. “Acquiring a language is learning a skill “ just like learning the skill of riding a bike”. Practice makes perfect! Practice in this case is to read, listen, write and speak. Those are the four areas that we focus on at My French Club. When words are put in a context, in a story or in a song, suddenly words come to life and words as well as structure can be memorized better.

During the last session, we sang and learned all about Greetings, presentation, how old I am , where do I live…

Repetition is the key! It takes time to familiarize yourself with a new language. Be patient and support your children’s French education at home. You will find plenty of resources on our website http://www.myfrenchclub.ca along with some valuable advice on the blog. And if that is not enough, feel free to drop me an email with your questions :)