A reading-friendly home is one in which reading material in many forms is enjoyed by every member of the family. You don’t need hundreds of books, a Kindle or the Complete Works of Shakespeare to create a reading-friendly home.

Encourage your child to read by showing them that you enjoy reading too.

As a life skill, reading ranks alongside walking and talking. You can manage if you can’t read, but your life is so much harder. As well as helping us deal with day-to-day practicalities, reading enhances our thinking skills, improves vocabulary and enriches our imaginations.

Almost all parents agree that they would like their children to grow into proficient readers and yet we see many, many children each year, who dislike reading and consequently struggle in school (this is not the same as children who have a bona fide reading difficulty in reading, such as dyslexia or visual stress). It’s not impossible to turn a reluctant reader into a reading enthusiast, but as children gets older, their dislike of reading becomes entrenched and it gets more difficult to get them reading for pleasure.

Build Reading into Your Routine

So the key is to encourage frequent, joyful reading from an early age. You can share books with babies as soon as they are born (not immediately after delivery, obviously – unless you were in the middle of something really unputdownable). Throughout childhood, a bedtime story is a fantastic way to discover share stories, new and old. With an older child, you can read whatever you both enjoy. You might read a chapter book together or a short picture book, or a few poems – even a well-chosen article from a newspaper will do. Just don’t let it become a chore and don’t abandon it when your child reaches eight or nine.

Let Your Child See You Read

Children who see their parents reading often and for enjoyment are far more likely to read for pleasure themselves. I don’t mean screens, which are too distracting and habit forming. I mean novels, articles, car manuals and cookbooks, atlases, anthologies and autobiographies. You could set a time every weekend when everyone stops to read their own books/ magazines/ newspapers in silence for half an hour. Try it: it’s wonderfully restful.

Don’t Guide Your Child Too Much

Provide a range of books, both fiction and non-fiction, short and long, picture and chapter books and let your child choose which s/he prefers. If s/he reads a lot of fiction, you can make up the shortfall with a non-fiction book at bedtime.

Make Books Part of Your Living Space

Make your books part of your living space.

Some people see books as rather untidy and prefer to keep them out of sight. This is not the way to create a reading-friendly home! Arrange your books by spine colour (this makes them look tidier) and turn eye-catching covers to face outwards. Your child should also have a selection of books (and no screens) in his/ her bedroom. Send them to bed early enough and they will read them.

A reading-friendly home is not the only way to help and encourage children to read. If your child needs something more, Better Tuition can help. Contact Paul or Christine and have a chat about it today.