27/07/2016
This little note goes to every Mummy and...oh well... Mummies only, I reckon! Perhaps we tend to worry differently from Daddies? ;) And I totally classify that as perfectly legitimate.
So I have received calls from several Mummies who wanted me to share tips on how they can encourage their children to read. They have tried it all. You name it, they say. They have done it all. And I believe them. We Mummies...we don't leave any stone unturned, do we?
How shall we encourage our kids to read? (You mean, besides tying them up to a chair with a book shoved on their laps, and a cane in our hands, right? Haha. Ok, jokes aside... But hey, really... maybe that'll just work for some? LOL. Not! Kidding! Seriously kidding!)
I'd say, DIG UP THEIR INTERESTS.
On anything. On something. On ONE thing. Surely they have one passion, if not two... or more!
FIRE that interest. That passion. IGNITE it. It could start with just you "stumbling" onto something related online - which you have googled and researched and decided, yay, that's exactly what my child is excited about. Balloon up that discovery. Oooohhhssss and aaaahhhhsss about it. Print it. Wall it. Lots of chatting about it. Together, write short interesting stuff to describe this part and that part...add that to the wall. (And PLEASE ignore all grammar errors if you spot any! Just focus on his passion!) No walls? No worries. A nice big chart might just be as fun!
The next thing you do is to find out exactly which bookshops sell books on those interests. Hence, more "stumbles" ensued. ;) You and your child would "accidentally stumble" on those books say, on one of your "nothing-to-do" Sunday afternoons.
I hear more ooohhhhssss and aaahhssss!
And I hope, with that child on your lap, or in the folds of your arms, you two will be hooked on books.
All the best, Mummies!