We all know “reading is fundamental”, but there are good ways to encourage kids to read… and ones that suck the pleasure out of reading for them. Slate points out that some parents’ requirements for kids to read in order to earn TV or game time are “the intellectual equivalent of the spinach you have to eat in order to get dessert.” Reading becomes a chore — a responsibility no one wants to do but must in order to get a real reward.
Picture: Quinn Dombrowski/Flickr
In short, the motivation for reading shouldn’t be something else the kids enjoy, but the reading itself. You can encourage this by finding books that appeal to kids, demonstrating a love of reading yourself, and filling your home with books. I mean, it’s not like you can sneak books into their smoothies like you can with broccoli.
This is the absolute worst way to teach your kids to read [Salon]
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5 responses to “Forcing Kids To Read Is Like Forcing Them To Eat Broccoli”
“Its not like you can sneak books into their smoothies like you can with broccoli”
Actually, a lot of TV, video games and cartoons have books which expand the universe. I used to read Star wars, Star Trek, Stargate, Dungeons and Dragons books when I was young. That helped me develop a love for reading.
There are alot of short novels on Japanese animes (actually a lot of japanese animations are based on short novels which have been fan translated or are avaliable for purchase. e.g. Spice and Wolf, Sword Art online). There are a ton of novels on console games like Halo, Fable and Viva Pinata. Then there are actual reading material in games it self. Elder Scolls games have always being known to hold whole novels written by “characters” in the game world about their world. Similarly other games use reading logs/diaries to help build an immersive world.
So in a way, you can sneak books into their smoothies….
Start them on comics. Kids love comics.
I only learnt to read because of pokemon red
And those phone-book sized joke-books.
Fun, and at the same time an exercise in both analysis and memory.
Write something and stick it near your kids bed. Tell them when they can read you the sentence, you will buy them an xbox. Have it read: “Well done child, I was only joking about the xbox”.