Tips On How To Help Your Child Love Reading

Every parent hopes that their child will fall in love with books. Whether that’s X-Men comics, Harry Potter series or classics like Little Women, books help kids in so many ways. Yet, some children do not take to reading easily. Here are real tips from experienced dads on how to get your kids to love reading.

Tips On How To Help Your Child Read More and Better

Argo Kubja: The best way to help him is to read with him by your side. The 30min before bedtime are the best ones for reading with him and it actually works, because that eliminates smartphones and iPad before going to sleep. Buy some books/comic books that he can follow and make the reading fun. That way he is patient and interested in the text and before you know, he will be the one reading to you while upgrading his level.

Jared Rigdon: Reading at “levels” is complete bull crap. Just take the time to read anything and everything with him. Street signs, automotive repair books, comics. Anything that will grab his attention. Go to a park, on a walk, get some coloring word pages so he can read a word and color it.

Geoff Lucas: What worked really well for my kids. Was comic books. Especially for an 8 year old little boy.
Subscriptions are great too- they run to the post office to get their new issue.
Also, read to him. Lots. Get him to try new words. Sound them out and make it fun.

James Homan: I’m an elementary teacher. I really recommend just going deeper with his comprehension. During the book, do some quick recap in different parts and ask him why a character did something, and what his prediction is for the rest of the book, and why he thinks that. When he finishes, ask him what he liked about it, and try asking some deeper questions about why one character did something instead of something else, etc. I much rather preferred my students to have a strong grasp of the content instead of just having a fast “words per minute” count. I had some very slow readers that could answer deep questions…that’s way better than being fast but not truly getting it!

Mathew Spendelow: My boy is 3 in January and from the day he was born until today we read him 3-4 books every day before bed. I try to teach him one word a night in a book. Persistence is key in learning.

Mike Underrwood: I learned to read though comic books. “Jack went up the hill” who cares? But bright colors, good verses evil- Batman superman! THAT enticed me to learn to read. People learn better when they’re interested in what they’re doing.

Joe Hawk: First off don’t panic. Some kids are slow to reading especially boys (in my experience). As a lot of other people have stated, find things that he likes to read no matter what the level is. Look for series that he may like with the same characters, because then it is easier to get into a book. One other thing that I did was I read with my son. Meaning while he was reading silently, I would read my own book right next to him. We do it all the time now especially right before his bedtime. We both lay in his bed reading our own books. He loves it and honestly so do I.

Flickr photo by Barney Moss.