One of my facebook friends this morning said she was wrapping books to give to her children, ages 8 months and 4 years. She’s giving them a book a day for all of December and she hopes it’ll be a wonderful new holiday tradition that will make them super-literate. She saw this on, of course, Pinterest.
I think it’s a terrible idea. A gift a day for ALL of December? The fact that the gifts are books doesn’t make it better, it seems like a great way to create some spoiled little kids. I don’t feel the need to say that to her, but I was curious what other people’s opinion might be. And there has got to be a better way to encourage a love of books, right? Just going to the library every Saturday seems like a better plan.
I’m struggling with how to encourage reading in my 7-month old, who just wants to put books in her mouth. And since my husband and I both use devices instead of reading actual books she doesn’t see a lot of reading, though she wants to put my Chromebook and Kindle in her mouth, too. So I understand the desire to do something big to encourage reading. How are Dopers encouraging their kids?
My wife and I both read a lot, and we’ve always provided lots and lots of age-appropriate books for the kids. We also read to the kids every night. When they were younger we would read to them during the day as well, but not so much now. Both kids are ambitious readers.
For our kids, the best way to encourage reading was to read to them. My daughter (now 9) has just recently become a voracious reader – we used to bribe her to read (e.g., read 30 minutes and you get a TV show) but now she can’t get enough. The boy is a bit younger, but still begs to be read to every night and should be able to read on his own fairly soon.
Plus we read magazines, the newspaper, and books in front of them all the time.
How to deal with the baby wanting to eat the book you’re reading? Today I tried to give her her own to eat while I read another. That worked pretty well.
I am inspired to go to Goodwill to find some new books. All of ours are about going to bed, except maybe one or two!
Get board books, give them a spare book (excellent idea), or give them something to chew on. That’s what my sister-in-law did when the babies were little.
At 7 months, eating books is about right. I’d just get some that don’t cost much and let her get used to having them around.
Then as she gets older, start reading them to her before bed, and other times if you can get her to sit still long enough. Hopefully, she’ll take to it, and start demanding you read to her often, and also “reading” the books on her own (looking at the pictures).
Our son (16 months) has us read and re-read books to him constantly, and will also sit and leaf through his board books on his own with no prompting.
I recommend Byron Barton and Sandra Boynton as authors of books that babies and toddlers seem to love.
I know I didn’t misinterpret her because she said she got them all at thrift stores. She may not have gotten them each a new book, but 30 new books every December seems like a lot of stuff.
Plus, if you’re young and not into reading, 31 books would be a daunting pile. (Not at age 4, when each book is one bed time story, but later when they are proper books.)
I think lots of reading to them. My papa read me LOTR far too young, with my mother complaining constantly that I was too young for it. That made it very exciting.
Then at night my mum would say: “and no more reading now!” which would guarantee that I would switch my light back on as soon as she left and read “secretly”.
We also used to go to our holiday house every single holiday, where we didn’t have a tv (and certainly no computer or internet). Once we were inside in the evenings the only available options were games or reading. We used to bring suitcases of books, and we’d still need to go to bookshop in the middle of the holiday. I concede it might be a big step to pick holiday destinations without tv specifically to get kids reading, but for me it didn’t just work, it was heaven! And now I don’t own a tv.
PS Anaamika, can I read to you? I love reading to people. A chapter of Winnie the Pooh and then straight to bed
If you want your kids to read, you have to be seen reading by them. My parents have always jumped at the chance to read when they have free time and read aloud to me from the moment I was born. I have no memories of this but my mom says that when I was an infant, in the evenings, my dad would play with me on the floor while my mom read aloud from whatever journal paper or book she was currently reading. Creating a culture of literacy is the way to do it, I feel.
I saw the same pin on Pinterest. I thought, “Great! I bet we have at least 24 books that I can wrap up!” Then I counted our Christmas books. We have over 60.:eek: Now I just have to choose 24 and wrap them in newspaper. It doesn’t make sense to me to buy 24 or more books every Christmas.
I think the best things you can do to encourage reading are a) own as many children’s books as you have money and space for and b) read to your children as much as possible. Bedtime is a good time for reading, as it works nicely into the daily bedtime routine.
About the book-eating thing: It will probably pass soon. If book-reading is not quite working out now, no sweat. Keep trying occasionally. Or, how about a touch-and-feel or lift-the-flap book? That might keep her occupied enough to stop trying to eat the book.
My kids prefer to read by themselves now (ages 6 and 9) but I still occasionally read to them. Harry Potter books in particular are great fun to read aloud!
I read a story once that said this is the single most important thing that determines a child’s future educational attainment: how much they are read to. I’ve also heard how much babies and kids are spoken to is crucial too. Both these things are all far more than anything they can do with them once they get into the school system. It’s all reading and talking in the home.
Oh and my son, a terrific reader at 8, refused to let me read to him until he was about 5. Wouldn’t sit for it. Would close the book and run away. Little punk. I read to him anyway; maybe he was listening.
But after that BOOM and he loves to be read to. He even likes to listen to stuff way above his comprehension level, like dry science texts on how stars are formed and detailed explanations of the body’s circulatory system. He now reads above his grade level.
I am a voracious reader and have raised readers. They have all loved books, even if a couple of them went through a phase where they didn’t read much.
For us it started young. We read to them often. The children’s rooms are right next to each other so in the evenings my husband would grab a chair and sit outside their doors reading a chapter from a book. He doesn’t do it so much now that they are getting older, but every once in awhile he will and they love it.
When they were little, I would read to them quite often from picture books. We made it a habit of going to the library for more books and I love that our library never limits books. We could always check out as big a stack as they wanted. During the summers our recipt from the check out is over 3’ long. (I adore our library!)
Another thing I’ve done is I suggest books, but I never force. When my children didn’t want to read Ralph S. Mouse (the Philistines!) I didn’t push it. Even when my son went through a phase where all he would read were The Warriors books (they are ghost written books about feral cats) I left him alone to read what he wanted. His taste has improved as he has gotten older, thank goodness. If you let them read what they want to read . . . they read more.
But as for your baby, board books. Lots of them. Some with touch and feel pages, but most with rhythm and catchy rhymes. Books that are clever so you love reading them and don’t get bored. Buy her books. Borrow books. Just have books and use them.
I read to him anyway; maybe he was listening.