There are a thousand quotes reminding us that reading is a key skill, the doorway to other worlds, essential for learning, the cornerstone of empathy and a leadership must!
Two of my favourites are:
"Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers."
Harry S. Truman- 33rd President of the United States
"There are many little ways to enlarge your world. Love of books is the best of all."
Jacqueline Kennedy - Socialite, Writer, Photographer, First Lady
We know that the tools developed in reading for pleasure spill over into other skills. Children who regularly read tend to be better at spelling, punctuation and sentence formation. They have wider vocabularies, greater empathy and increased world knowledge. As parents and teachers, we know that one of the greatest gifts you can give a child is a lifelong love of reading. But how is that done?
Firstly, we need to break down what we actually mean by reading. It is one thing to be able to decode words, recognise words and pronounce words correctly - let’s call this the plumbing.
The other skill of reading is to be able to understand what you are reading; what is written in plain text and what is inferred - let’s call this the poetry.
In Primary Schools, children are taught both of these skills. Parents can help by reading to and with their children. There are plenty of ways of keeping this fun and interesting, such as:
Taking it in turns to read pages aloud
Reading aloud in unison
Reading in silence and summarising what has happened
Taking it in turns to ask each other comprehension questions on the text
Listening to audio books and then discussing them
Once the plumbing is securely in place (usually around the age of 6 - 9) then the real poetry begins. This is where I have, during my 35 years of working with primary school children, seen parents struggle the most to encourage their child to read. So I would like to share some suggestions which have worked for me in the past. They won’t all work with every child; the key is to find what works for yours.
Model reading
Get caught reading. Be seen reading. Younger children are always watching their adults - you are their roadmap for how to behave. If they see you reading, they will assume that this is what grown-ups do so you need to model the behaviour and habits you want your child to form.
I would suggest here to use anything you fancy - magazines, novels, fiction, non-fiction - it doesn’t matter. However it is better to be a physical thing you are holding and reading, rather than a kindle, phone or tablet - as they are just too distracting for short attention spans.
The aim is for our children to get lost in their books, so model doing this yourself.
Build reading habits
You’ve probably heard of the advantages of ‘bath, book, bed.’ Most children enjoy the security and predictability of a routine and this one is a no brainer. If this is a child’s bedtime routine, it’s certainly an indication of privilege. If this is not already a weekday occurrence in your house, then it’s probably a good idea to introduce it, if you can.
Look to find times to read: on trains, in waiting rooms, before bed, in the bath. Leave books lying around and easy to access. Have them on your coffee table, in the kitchen, in your handbag, in your back pocket, piled up in the bathroom, in a box in the back of the car.
Teachers, when your students have completed their work, don’t reward them with more - let them read! Make this a privilege in your classroom - a special corner where they actually want to go.
Always have a book on hand to be able to turn to in a spare 5 minutes. It doesn’t need to be a heavy tome - maybe a small book of short stories, or a joke book, or a child’s book of fun facts (Horrible Histories was always a firm favourite). When it becomes a go-to activity it becomes the habit of a lifetime.
Find other role models
Back when I was a class teacher, I had one particular class with a larger than usual group of 10 year old boys who were reluctant (and pretty weak) readers. As much as I tried to convince them that it was a fun and cool thing to do - my efforts seemed to have the opposite impact. If it was a ‘cool’ thing for a middle aged female teacher to be doing, it certainly wasn’t something appealing to them!
So I had to get cunning. I created a reading club and invited them along, bribing them with biscuits. Each week I would invite an older boy (usually a former student) to come and talk to them about the books they enjoyed reading when they were 10 and perhaps have them read a favourite section of the book they were currently reading.
These younger boys idolised the older role models and soon started requesting to read the recommended books. I happily helped them with this and we read some of them together.
Special occasion books
As a Headteacher I used to tell my children to write a list of books for Christmas. “Santa always loves giving books,” I would tell them. And their parents were delighted!
Think about having special books for special occasions. Buy books which are set in places where you are going and for experiences you are sharing as a class or as a family.
Day trip to London? Here are 34 books you might try.
Starting in a new school or city? Here are 15 children’s books about new beginnings
Spooky books for Halloween? Waterstones have you covered
Getting ready for Christmas? Here are 127 recommendations from Goodreads
You get the idea.
Bookclub
I have been a member of a book club for the last 20 years. I have moved countries and changed clubs (my current club is called Wines and Spines - how fabulous!) a few times. Still the model is always the same. A group of us recommend and discuss possible books to read and then vote on them. We then go away and read them and come back and discuss them over refreshments.
It’s a tried and tested model. It works. So I tried it with 11 year olds. That worked too! I took them to a bookstore and let them select the book we would all read. They decided how much we would read each week and then I would provide child-friendly refreshments and we would discuss what had happened so far and try to make predictions about what would happen next.
Reading in groups works. It means that they maintain momentum and keep reading because they don’t want to fall behind their peers or miss out on the conversation. So, see if there’s an opportunity to have your child read the same book as their friends. Collude with other parents, give the same books as gifts and then get the children talking about them. It works, I promise!
Read in pairs
This is similar to the last suggestion. It’s always more fun to share an experience with a friend. So, if you are a parent, consider taking your child to select a book to buy for both themselves and their best friend(s) to read at the same time.
If you are a teacher, instead of having each child in your class read a different book, get them into pairs or groups to choose books that they want to read together.
Buy beautiful books
There are so many out there. Big Beautiful Books about every subject. A wander around Waterstones is one of my favourite pastimes and book-buying is my favourite indulgence. So take your child(ren) to bookstores and buy them beautiful books. Some suggestions from me might be:
Make books special. Make them a treat. Make them a habit. Make them a part of your everyday life. You'll need to have a lot of them around, because, as Roald Dahl said:
"If you are going to get anywhere in life you are going to have to read a lot of books."
