Do you love reading but your child doesn’t? Do you wish your child would get lost in a good book? This list of 5 resources to help your child love reading includes ideas will bring books alive for your child. We use all of these resources in our own family and it has created sustainable and independent reading time.
Nonfiction Books Will Rock Their Socks, Help Them Love Reading
There are so many wonderful children’s books out there. Maybe you have a list of books that you loved reading as a child. Perhaps you have a couple children’s classics stowed away for magical read aloud. If you are anything like me then this list of books doesn’t include nonfiction books. I mean a book about where penguins live isn’t quite the magic I’m looking for. But nonfiction books are a powerful tool to help kids love reading. There are nonfiction books on every subject and chances are if your child learns that he can get 10 books about his favorite sports car he make just be more interested in reading. Nonfiction books are a gateway to reading because they can include: photographs, short descriptive text, captions, diagrams and maps. There are no characters to develop or plots to follow. Even children that are not reading yet can learn to love reading nonfiction books.
We have an entire stash of chunky, board books in the nonfiction genre. Young children can use the photos in these books to make concrete connections to their environment. Nonfiction books are great for children that are overwhelmed by a page full of text. Many of the nonfiction books that were currently own are about Legos. Even though there are some text heavy portions, there are tons of images of Legos of each age too. I wouldn’t considered a Lego book a classic, but it’s intriguing for my son who loves Legos, so it counts!
Less Words More Pictures
Have you ever read a book without words? We have a few wordless books in our home library that I will pullout from time to time. Right about now you might be saying, “Wait, I want my child to love reading. How will a wordless book help?”. The truth is, children need to understand how words connect to the content on the page. A wordless book does that in reverse. The child looks at the illustrations and reads into what each page says. She can decide what she wants to story to say, she is giving the characters the voice or describing the setting. She is using her knowledge base of words, emotional responses, and typical behavior to create the text.
By writing her own story, the next time she reads a book she will think critically about what is written. Would she have used those same words to describe the scene? Could the author have used a different word to describe the character’s emotions? Now she’s beginning to think about synonyms and adjectives and she doesn’t even know it. Wordless books are a sneaky way to help children love reading.
Kids Choice not Parents Choice
This is one I had to learn the hard way. I cannot count how many times I went to the library, chose a bag full of books I knew my kids would adore only to find the books ignored when I brought them home. The books checked everything on my list, Caldecott award winners, legendary authors and breathtaking illustrations. The problem was I wasn’t giving my children any buy in when it came to reading. Here’s the problem, I’m a snob when it comes to children’s books. I was squelching any opportunity that my child would bring home a poorly written book full of “ugly” illustrations. Well by edging them out of the selection process I essentially took away their desire to read. If I wanted my children to love reading I was going to have give up some control.
At ages 5 and 8 they choose their own books but I still choose a sackful of books too! But they’re much more likely to look at my books once they’ve read their choices first.
Love Reading Challenges
If you were a kids during the 80s and 90s you probably remember the Book It program. Did you know that Book It is still around? Book It is sponsored by Pizza Hut and encourages reading by rewarding kids with a free personal pan pizza. Homeschool parents and classroom teachers can sign up for the Book It Program for free using their online portal. We’ve used this program as part of our homeschool when he was 5 and 6. He loved filling out his reading log and taking his certificate to Pizza Hut to order his pizza.
Many local libraries host a reading challenge during the Summer months for kids. This gives children a chance to learn to love reading without the pressure of school. Sometimes I think children are just tired at the end of the school day. When teachers tack on 20 minutes of reading in the evening it’s just too much for some kiddos. Getting children excited about books in the Summer may help to transfer to the upcoming school year.
Hoopla and Libby
I have both of these apps on my phone and constantly use them to play audiobooks during long car rides. You may have access to Hoopla and Libby through your local library system. If I can’t find a book on one app then I check the other and chances are I’ll find it. It can be challenging to do a read aloud with my kids everyday, actually it’s almost impossible. However with these apps my son can listen to books during quiet time, and that’s a win for our family. I’ve even used these apps to play books for the kids when they’re sick and we’ve had enough screen time.
Both of these apps offer eBooks and animated books for children. We don’t typically use these features but it’s nice to know it’s available should we choose it.
Books on CD
This is an oldie but a goodie. Books on tape or rather books on CD are a great way for children to learnt o love reading. They have a chance to strengthen auditory cues and visual processing simultaneously. I can remember getting books on tape from the library as a child. The books and cassettes were in a plastic bag connected to what looked like a hanger. You could choose a book from a carousel and I think the library rule was only two at a time. Even if children are not strong readers they can use books on CD with the option of “listen for this sound to turn the page”.
My daughter has been listening to the same books since she was three on CD. She loves putting in the CD on her own and snuggling on a beanbag with a pair of headphones. My mom actually gave us her CD/casette players, similar to this one, my kids really love reading books this way. Once again this is a great resource for children who aren’t reading yet. They can practice listening for cues, turning pages carefully and enjoying the storyline. We also purchased a splitter so that more than one kid can listen to the books together.
Tumble Book Library and Bookflix
Our family really likes to use these websites for our “Lunch and Learn” sessions. Every once in a while I let my children watch a show while they’re eating lunch. I play the show on the iPad and tell them we’re having a lunch and learn. Tumble Book Library and Bookflix bring a book to life by adding narration and animation. Both of these websites organize the books by theme. I find that Bookflix is easier to navigate for me and my children and they only have children’s material. I prefer BookFlix because they pair fiction and nonfiction books. They also offer a read along option which allows children to listen or to read independently. Bookflix is owned by Scholastic, I previously accessed it through our old library system. I recommend going to your local library’s main, then searching for “Bookflix”. You can also try to go directly to the Bookflix page and search for your library, Unfortunately our current library doesn’t have a Bookflix subscription even though we’re in a large city.
Tumble Book Library only offers children’s books as well it just a little more difficult to navigate. The system appears to be a little older but I just noticed that they have an app now, so that’s promising.
We hope your children will love reading!
Mama I hope these resources will help you as they have our family. Navigating reading with children can be wary but with lots of prayer and patience you may find a smoother course. I know you know this but every child really is different. In the world of Charlotte Mason’s first principle.
Children are born persons.
-Towards a Philosophy of Education, vol. 6, Charlotte Mason
Simple but true. Take the time to look at your child as an individual and you may find more ways to help connect them with great literature.
-Courtney
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