Meet FRED. You can still enjoy reading aloud to your children. Our local school district has a “Fathers Reading Every Day (FRED)” program that lets kids keep track of the time their dads spend reading with them and has rewards for meeting certain goals. Whether you participate in a formal program or not, try to make time to read 15-30 minutes with your kids.
Turn Off the TV. One of the major distractions during the school week is television. While we tried to respectfully balance TV with other demands in our home life, we couldn’t make it work during the week. So our rule is that the TV doesn’t go on until at least 9:00 p.m. on school nights. This allows time for meaningful interaction, homework, and reading.
Get Them a Library Card. Once our children hit first grade, we made a visit to the library to get them their own personal library card. It was a rite of passage for our children, and helped them connect more personally with library resources. And they were personally responsible for their overdue book fines.
Vary Your Reading Material. Again, keep up the habit of library participation, but now try to focus on variety. Get some books for pleasure reading; but also look for biographies and books on a topic of interest for your children like science, astronomy, dinosaurs, and the like. Helping them find information in their leisure reading will prepare them for later things like research and term papers.
Reading to Younger Siblings. Especially if your child developed an early love for reading by watching your example, they will feel a desire to read to their younger siblings. That is a great opportunity for them and for you. Sit them both in your lap and let the older child read to the younger one. It will help them both develop better reading skills and attitudes.
What About Learning Struggles? Most often, if children don’t develop a love for reading at this stage of their lives, there may be a mild learning or reading disability. Most schools or school districts have a reading resource program. Talk to your child’s teacher or principal to find out how to get some professional help.
Summer Reading Trophies. One of the best things we did in our home to encourage reading was our own summer reading program. At the end of each school year, our children would get a gift of a book from mom and dad to start their summer reading. They would also set a goal for the number of pages they would read over the summer. If the child achieved his goal, he was presented a reading trophy at the end of the summer. We had a formal ceremony in the living room where I would present them with a colorful trophy with an inscription of their name, the year and the number of pages they read. And boy, were they proud of those trophies! It was a great motivator all summer long.
