Back to School: How to Encourage Reading During the School Year

In our Back to School series, we want to touch on several topics that will make segueing back into the school year much easier for both you, the parents, and your children. Oftentimes, the transition from summer break to school can be demanding and exhausting, especially as time goes on. However, we want to help by giving you tips on how you can encourage your children to read during the school year.

Read with your kids

You can either read to your kids, or you and your children can take turns. This is called shared reading and it helps alleviate the burden of reading alone. While reading is very important, comprehension is equally as important. Allowing your child to break from reading while you read out loud to her offers her the opportunity to listen rather than focus on word pronunciation and annunciation. This way, listening helps her to comprehend the story. A good way to share reading is to alternate pages – you read a page and then your child reads a page.

Make reading a nightly routine.

Routine is incredibly important. Having a nightly reading routine tells your children that this is a part of their day. There is less to fight about when they can anticipate the quiet time that is set aside for them to read. This time also makes it fun for them to find their own space and to veg out independently of other family members.

Do not use reading as a form of punishment.

Utilizing reading as a form of punishment only serves to makes things much harder on you and your child. Reading should be associated with imagination, learning, and escape. To emphasize reading as a form of punishment is counter-productive and will create a situation where the child will surely dread reading even more in the future.

Set the example and let them see you reading.

Just like the saying “show me, don’t tell me,” a child will follow your lead when he sees how you yourself enjoy reading.