Encouraging Children To Read

Hey Guys!
Today I have a great guest post from my wonderful Blogger Spotlight, Mel. Mel is here to talk to us about Encouraging Children to Read!

When Faye contacted me to be her Blogger Spotlight of the month I was overwhelmed and grabbed the opportunity with both hands. She then told me about writing a guest post, which I’ve never done before and was really stuck on what to write about without boring
you all to death. Then Faye gave me the idea of writing about my favourite childhood book which is wayyy too tricky to pick just one, but this gave me another idea. So I may still bore you all to death but have a little read and see what you think.

I decided to talk about encouraging children to read. I have always been a reader and someone who enjoys a good book. I inherited this from my Mum who basically role modelled the idea of reading as a past-time. However, a lot of children today don’t have that role model and of course they have a little thing called the internet.

I work in a primary school and could not believe the amount of children in their one or two week half-terms, spending all their time on an Xbox, PlayStation or just generally on the internet. To mention to those children the idea of reading a book for fun is blasphemy, as if you’re an alien with six heads! This experience got me thinking about encouraging children to read outside of school and not just reading the compulsory school books sent home each week.

My idea to encourage them was simple. Bring a book into work and be their role model. I decided that on every school trip I would take my current read and read on the coach journey there and back. At first, the children simply looked at me like I was doing something illegal, to read in public?! SHOCKING! But gradually, they became curious by the second or third time of seeing me doing it and began to question me.

“Miss, why do you have a book?”

“To read”

“But why?”

“I like reading when I’m bored. It’s like escaping to a different World”

“Oh.”

That was just one conversation that made me understand that children need an ambition to read. A reason as to why they should read and not just because they had to for school. A week later, the same child came up to me and said “MISS! I like reading now. Have you read The Hunger Games?”

That made me so happy, to hear that I’d encouraged a child into reading for the fun of it, and once one child followed my lead, the rest joined in too!

“Miss, my Mum bought me the Bear Grylls book, you know the army man?”

“Miss, I like made-up stories”

“Miss, have you heard of Thor? What does ‘myth’ mean?”

What do you think? How do you encourage children to read?