In our last blog, we mentioned that reading early to your child and reading what interests him/her encourages reading habits. We also emphasized on surrounding your child with books, setting up a daily reading hour or reading time to discipline your child’s reading and make it a habit.

This blog explores some more ways on how we can develop easy reading habits in our children.

Read their favourites – It’s good if your child wants you to read his favourite book again and again. Re-reading a book not only shows a child’s interest in a particular story but also tells you about his choice of story type, characters etc. And it really enhances the communication skills as the vocabulary of the child increases with a particular story.

Ask prediction questions – There’s no best way to know your child better as a person, by asking him questions about the book he just finished. His interpretations about the story, the characters, the plot, the concept, the emotions etc. helps to know the child’s level of comprehension and understanding. They get to know how their child sees the world. Asking predicting questions like “what do you think should have happened in so and so situation”, or contrasting questions like “what if the main character of the story did just the opposite of what is written – what difference would it have made”. All such questions help children to become more imaginative and intuitive.

Set challenges and rewards – Setting a reading goal like finishing up a book in a stipulated time and rewarding the child on achieving the same makes ‘reading’ even more fun. It keeps the child motivated. Setting daily goals is also a great idea. For example, setting a goal of reading every day for an hour, and rewarding the child for the same can boost the daily reading habit.

Gift them books – If you want to foster the love for reading in your child, there’s no better gift than ‘books’ for your child. And you can ask your relatives and friends also to gift your child books as birthday presents, of his favorite author or the genre that he loves to read. Your family and friends can contribute in your efforts.

b>Get library membership – To increase reading interest, you can get your child a membership in a good library in your local area. This way, the child will never be out of stock of his favourite books and authors as well as of his love for books.

Be a good role model – “Parents do, children follow”. If you want your child to be an avid reader, you have to become a role model to him first, else he might start questioning you about your interest in reading. So as parents, try to read either a magazine, novel or whatever interests you. The goal here is to make your child realize the importance of reading. So be a good role model.

Demonstrate your love for reading to your kids – Talk to your children about the books you love to read and tell them what you like about those books and why. Sharing what you gained from a particular story increases their excitement for reading and exploring a world of their own.

As children explore the world of their own through reading, they become confident about every situation that they come across in the story. They try to interpret the same in real life. Thus, books actually enhance childrens' experience about life’s situations. Reading, therefore, improves and expands critical and analytical thinking ability of children.

As Albert Einstein said – “If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.”