“There’s been an enormous investment in teaching kids to read in elementary school-Kids are doing better at 9, and at 11. At 13, they’re doing no worse, but then there is a catastrophic fall-off. … If kids are put into this electronic culture without any counterbalancing efforts, they will stop reading.”
NEA chairman Dana Gioia
Let’s face it, parents have to take a lot of the blame. No one wants to hear this but far too few parents turn off the TV or computer and pick up a book themselves. It is our job to set the example. Take some time to talk to your kids about a great book and not the latest Lindsey Lohan gossip!
Here’s a plan- next time your kids say they are bored, and who doesn’t here that a hundred times a week?, hand them a book. Next time you are working around the house, give them 2 choices, help or read. Want to bet they will read!
I bought my 9 year old granddaughter a Kindle with a pretty pink cover. A lot of our relationship revolves around books- picking books, sitting together on the porch reading, reading interesting or funny passages to each other. When she is older she will credit me with her love of books. What better gift can I give her?
How do we encourage kids to pick up a book instead of heading to facebook and twitter? I am not saying social networking is evil but it should not be your teenagers main focus in life- there is so much more out there to learn and experience and a lot of it is in books.
How do you encourage your kids to read?
What do you wish you had done?
What advice would you give parents to encourage reading?
Give us your ideas to pass on –
It is hard for me to comment on this, because my two granddaughters, 17 and 14, are avid readers.
But so in their mother and her friends. The girls have learned to think of reading as entertainment, and they read YA fiction. But they are reading, reading, reading.
You did something right!