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Ask the Expert
Expert: Kathleen C. Perencevich
Question 5:
I am a single, working mother of two, and I know that it is important to read with my children. But the truth is that I just don’t have a lot of time to spend doing “reading activities” with my kids. Do you have any suggestions for really quick ways to encourage my kids to read?
Answer:
You are to be highly praised for wanting to encourage reading at home. This is so important for your children both to develop their skills in reading and for them to learn the enjoyment of reading.
Of course, time is an issue and children always have other activities to keep them busy. Try to have reading time when it is convenient for you and at a time when you are already together. For example, you may want to have your children read stories to you and to each other while you are cooking dinner. You can be actively listening and asking them questions about the books they are reading. Also during dinner, you could be talking about books that you loved when you were a child and talking about your own motivations for reading.
You may want to leave books in your car and have your children read to you while driving to the store. If you always carry books with you, anytime you have to “wait,” you can read together. Other reading-related activities you can do on the fly include taking turns making up stories together, playing rhyming games, word plays, and tongue twisters. Thankfully, many books now come with CDs and tapes, so your children can listen to books on tape while reading along. It is important that they read words along with the tape so that the process is active and not passive.
You can encourage independent reading by having interesting books available to your children. Hook them into reading through their own personal interests. If they love soccer, you can go to the library and get books on soccer. If they love bugs, you can have books on bugs ready to be read. A text-rich environment is so important for children.
The more your children read, the better they will be at reading. Children who are competent at reading tend to like reading more. You are on the right track with wanting to provide reading time for your children at home.
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