Technology and the modern society have come up with a number of ways how a kid can learn a number of things. Today the modern schools use the technology of digital learning where kids do not study from books. Though these new technical ideas offer an easy and fun way for the kids to learn things, but it is also taking away from them a very basic habit of reading.
Many of the parents are now concerned about how they can bring some interest in their children about reading books. If you are also among such parents, then you can scroll down to see some tips that can help your children gain a habit of reading.
Reading to the child
It has been researched and proved that reading to the child can be the best way to grow a habit of reading in them. There is no such specific time from when you can start reading to your kid. You can even start reading to him or her since birth because it has been noticed that infant kids enjoy when you speak to them. While your baby is a toddler, you can read out books that have a lot of images. Show the images to the baby and then read it out loudly so that the baby can listen to it and will try to understand it. As your baby grows, now you can start reading out story books and others. If you start the habit of reading out various things to your kid since starting, then surely they will develop habits of reading.
Making a schedule
It has been researched that if you want someone to develop a habit, the first thing that you need to do is to make a proper schedule. Decide upon a particular time of the day when you will read out to your kid. It can be any time of the day, but make sure that you read out to your baby exactly at that particular time each day. Also, it would be nice if along with the fixed time, you can read out to your baby at a fixed place also. This particular habit helps the kid to concentrate well on whatever you are reading and hence, it becomes easier for the kid to develop this habit of listening to what to read and later on of reading also.
Have fun with them
After your kids have learned to read words and understand them, you can encourage them to read books, especially story books. But make sure that you do not expect them to read even a whole page at one chance. Kids get disinterested very soon with monotonous things. Get them story books with lots of images and characters. Often you will find that they will imagine the characters with the images and will come up with some other stories different from the storybook. You should not get angry at them, rather you should appreciate their creativity. Then you can encourage them to read about what exactly has happened to the characters. But do not force them if they are not in the mood.
Choose books of different varieties
When your son or daughter is a kid, they don’t know about which genre of the stories they like. So, this is the time to experiment with them. Do not stick to a particular genre at first. Get different genres such as fairy tales, humor, adventure and others to see in which segment your kids are getting more interest. Also, if the kid will have an interest in something, he or she will automatically start doing that particular thing. If you see that your kid is having an interest in adventure stories, buy such storybooks, and you will be amazed to see the reading habit developed in your kid.
Prefer bookstores to malls
If you wish to buy a book for your kids, try to buy it from a genuine bookstore rather than buying it from a mall. If you go to the mall, no doubt your kid will get distracted by other things such as toys, accessories and others. But instead if you prefer going to a bookstore, your kid’s only place of focus will be books. Also in an exclusive bookstore, you will get books at a much cheaper price than at the malls.
Also, you can go to libraries where the environment is such that the kid will automatically wish to sit and read some books of his or her choice. Here also you do not have to spend money in buying the books; you can go, invest some time so that your kid can read some books there itself.
Being a role model
You must have noticed that the kids always try to copy you and hence they will do things exactly what you do. Take full advantage of this habit of your kid. If you read in front of them on your own also, then they will do the same thing too. If you do not have a habit of reading, then this the best time to get yourself also into the habit of reading. The more your kid sees you with a book, the more he or she will get attracted towards reading books.
No gadgets will lead to more and more books
The modern world has introduced a number of gadgets that can keep a kid engaged and busy. TV, computers, video games, and many others are enough to keep your baby so busy that they will not wish to look at books also. Try to minimize the use of such modern gadgets around your kid so that he or she can have a lot of time to search interest in books.
Group habit
It is not only you, but a number of parents also face the same problem as you do about making your kids read books. So, if you stay at a place where there are many kids, then discuss with the parents and fix up a time when all the kids can meet up at a place regularly with different books. When kids talk and share books with each other, they surely get interested in it.
Make sure that forcing your kids to read books can case opposite impacts. So, here you need to handle them very carefully. Use the above-mentioned tips and surely you can see your kids getting the habit of reading books.
