How to inspire a child to read?

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ToadMum
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Re: How to inspire a child to read?

Post by ToadMum »

I don't know what area you are in, but if your local libraries are running a summer reading scheme it's not too late to sign him up for it. You don't have to read too many books to get some kind of reward, and it may encourage him if he's at all competitive. Obviously someone has to be available to take him to see the 'reading ladies (gentlemen / boys / girls - a lot of the volunteers are secondary school pupils here) when the sessions are running, though, so difficult if you are working and your child is at a holiday scheme, for example.
Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.Groucho Marx
southbucks3
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Re: How to inspire a child to read?

Post by southbucks3 »

ConfusedFather wrote:
booellesmum wrote:Really recommend "First News" newspaper for kids. Can pick them up in supermarkets. Good to read together and talk about the articles.
Can always then look up related things on line and read around the subjects. Doesn't always have to be fiction!
Could be a great idea, but I just looked at their website and they seem to have a lot of celebrity tabloid-type trash news :( (alongside much more relevant articles).
My DS is currently blissfully ignorant of the celeb universe, and I'd rather he learns about important past or present people.

There probably lies your problem, you are expecting him to read what you approve of and like, not what he may enjoy.
There are still lots and lots of big fast picture story books around for seven year olds as well as the non fiction, often it's the length of stories that is boring, try short stories. As he is being a good boy and reading his school books well, his freetime and bedtime reading can surely be anything he enjoys at all, one of mine loved the football comics ten years ago, I hated them, but it was his treat. Vocabulary is all around us, you speak your first language at home which is fine, but having the radio on in English over breakfast and dinner for example will often raise the question "what does that mean." My boys love the dulcet tones of moira stuart reading the breakfast news during the Chris Evans show, nearly, if not as much as his drivel.
Also telly can be ok if you watch with him to explain vocab, there are some brilliant children's serialised plays on cbbc. Plus naturewatch etc on adult tv.
Good luck
Tinkers
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Re: How to inspire a child to read?

Post by Tinkers »

I'd just add my daughter certainly wasn't reading for pleasure at 7yo.

Then she discovered the Rainbow Magic books, as a lot of her friends were reading them. She devoured them.

At the time I really didn't like them, but with hindsight it triggered a love of reading that still persists today. Her bedroom floor now groans with the weight of books.
ToadMum
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Re: How to inspire a child to read?

Post by ToadMum »

Is this child home educated? If not, then I would have my doubts about the depth of his 'blissful ignorance' anyway, unless the years are ruthlessly segregated lest the 'babies' should hear a word of the 'big ones' conversation, and all 'themed' accessories are banned? I would also caution about being too controlling about what your child reads (within reason, even our youngest didn't get into The Hunger Hands until he was nearly ten :lol: ); I read a lot when I was a child - I did have the example of both parents reading detective fiction and a daily newspaper and neither discouraged me from reading the paper / magazines / comics or even the odd Agatha Christie if that's what took my fancy.
Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.Groucho Marx
Yamin151
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Re: How to inspire a child to read?

Post by Yamin151 »

ConfusedFather wrote:
yoyo123 wrote:Have you tried audio books?
They can follow the story in a "real" book if they want, but it is not necessary.

You could also read with them. Taking turns to read bits.

Do they have any particular interests? Perhaps non- fiction books would be good for a change, again if you read them together.

My son also particularly enjoyed joke books - but you have to be prepared to put up with corny jokes constantly.

How about books in your home language? Local libraries often have a good selection and also some bi lingual books.

Good Luck most children suddenly find something that sparks their interest it just takes some longer than others, however.
Haven't tried audio books, but I wonder how they differ from watching TV? Isn't the learning linked to actually reading the words?

Yes, reading with them could be a solution. We tried it a couple of times, and they didn't seem to mind it. But, it drove me crazy :lol: I couldn't stand the pace of reading out loud when my eyes already finished reading the page. And the whole reading to kids feels so unnatural to me, since it was not what I personally experienced. It feels "wrong" (though it is not) to spend so much effort for something that should be innate (at least based on my personal experience). I need to force myself a bit more and overcome that loathing :?

We give him access to books in both languages, only success is with continental comics (is there a proper word for these books actually? Comics is for US stuff, Manga for Japanese ones, Cartoon is for TV ones I guess... ) At least he's loving them, but I would feel more relaxed if he actually read and understood all the speech bubbles.
For us, reading is a big thing, we always read so did set an example and I grew up in a house full of books. However, screens do compete so first thing I'd do if you want to encourage a love of books is not give your child the alternative of tv, it's easy and passive to watch TV and many many kids will pick that instead. So limit it, if you don't already.
I also would encourage the readings t them thing. As they get old real that's easier actually. I belive it was michael Rosen who said that what do we do when our children learn to read? We punish them by stopping reading to them! Bit of an exaggeration I know, but w have continued to read to our boys, who are about to turn 12 and can read anything and everything, and they do. But they also love us to read to them at bedtime. As well as being bonding and calming, it's also a great way to continue a love of reading and as they get older, we've been able to read books that are more interesting to us as well. In fact I've read them a lot of my books I had as a tween, still stored at my parents place.
And we love First news, too.

Audio books also great, tv hands it all to you on a plate, audio books make you imagine. Whenever we go on a long road trip we always pick an audio book. As a sideline it's givning them an interest in podcasts too, and that's an amazing world to explore.
yoyo123
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Re: How to inspire a child to read?

Post by yoyo123 »

ConfusedFather wrote:
ConfusedFather wrote: Now do you have any suggestion of age appropriate one? In my time I think the biggest authors were Steve Jackson and Ian Livingston, are there better ones nowadays?
I just bought some Puzzle Master books. Still image driven but he'll have to read the texts to make his choice :)

Also bought the first book in the Fighting Fantasy series.
:D

There were some good Goosebumps ones that my son liked. There is also a ChooseYour Own Adventure series of books I've seen on Amazon, which are aimed at younger children
Peridot
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Re: How to inspire a child to read?

Post by Peridot »

Not sure if I'm allowed to do this but this is a link to the current children's non-fiction/science offers online from the Book People:

https://www.thebookpeople.co.uk/webapp/ ... tId=147755" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

My son absolutely loved fact books at your son's age - as someone else said many children, boys in particular, like reading short snippets of fact-based information rather than fiction. he had loads of sets of "How does this work..." type books with lots of illustrations and short text boxes.

I'm also a devotee of audio books. We had them on in the car for every journey, long or short (that or Radio 4) and would often sit at our destination or on our drive when we got home with all of us, adults included, listening to the end of a story. There are often discounted sets of Roald Dahl audiobooks available online. Ours absolutely loved those, and the Just William stories read by Martin Jarvis. Children do love stuff that's got a slightly naughty/subversive edge to it, which both of these authors deliver.

Do consider First News too. There's usually only a little bit of tawdry tabloid-style pop or soap news; most of the rest of it is the real news edited into child-friendly language - often with excellent background explanations which even I found useful - and great features articles about endangered animals or whatever.
Stroller
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Re: How to inspire a child to read?

Post by Stroller »

You've had loads of good suggestions already, but I wanted to come back to the reasons why reading aloud or listening to audio books is so helpful. Your listening vocabulary and understanding is always larger than your spoken vocabulary, which in turn is larger than the vocabulary you use when writing. Listening to Radio 4 (or Radio 4 extra) or unabridged children's books (you can borrow them from the library) is a great way to expose children to words other people use. Having heard them in context a couple of times makes words more familiar when a reader encounters them.

Jim Trelease is a huge advocate of reading aloud and his site has lots of free suggestions.
http://www.trelease-on-reading.com/rah-ch1-pg2.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Here's one that would probably be easier to follow if printed and folded: http://www.trelease-on-reading.com/10-r ... ochure.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Reading aloud with children, engaging them in conversation and helping them to find reading material about something they're interested in is really helpful. Comics, books about pets / football / how-to-swim-or-do-something-that-would-interest-YOUR-child are all valid. If you're looking for an easy adventure series, the characters in Mary Pope Osborne's Magic Treehouse books go to the Amazon one day, Egyptian tombs another and then back in time to dinosaurs or King Arthur. They are easy to read without being very babyish. The Diamond Brothers series by Anthony Horowitz is fun to read, the books veer more towards detectives and villains. The Alex Rider series is a mini James Bond but a bit harder. Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer is also very popular once you can handle something like Alex Rider.

Geraldine McCaughrean's books are interesting and varied. She uses a rich vocabulary and intricate sentence structure that might be easier to access via the audio books. Very good for language exposure. Our library had all of them - we listened to them in the car.

Good luck with it. And enjoy it!
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sbarnes
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Re: How to inspire a child to read?

Post by sbarnes »

My child does not read, has no interest in reading whatsoever. He may have read 10books in his life at best. It's not the end of the world and no handicap in other areas of academia.
ConfusedFather
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Re: How to inspire a child to read?

Post by ConfusedFather »

Got the puzzle master books today, he devoured them :)
What bothers me is that he doesn't read every word and had a tendency to skip to the "what do you want to do now" bit of the page. I had to stop him and ask him questions on many pages (whether about vocabulary or understanding, implications, etc... ). Also, whenever a puzzle seemed to take more than 30 seconds, he would start whining "it's too difficult" :(

I'll need to create another thread on how to inculcate perseverance to a 7 yo :lol: But more seriously, this is a major asset in life to have, and he is being quite weak on that. I don't want to turn to a tiger parent, but he must learn how to spend a lot of effort on things....


Regarding reading out loud, as I said, I should do it and will try to do it. However my qualms are mainly due to:
- I never needed it, my wife never needed it. I feel bad if my DS needs help we did not need.
- it's incredibly boring. Voice is a very slow medium to convey information, that's also why I can't stand podcasts.
- my accent. I really don't want him to pick up my English accent. Also, I do not master UK phonics very well (****, when I moved here I thought Berkshire would be pronounced Beurk-shayre and not Bark-sher... ) and may mislead him.
Last edited by ConfusedFather on Sat Aug 15, 2015 3:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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