For many children, reading can be a chore. They associate it with work and school, which they may even like, but not necessarily want to bring home or engage in studies on their own time. After all, there’s a lot of playing to be done. However, it’s true that being literate, even if that just means reading books appropriate for their age group, can help a child in so many ways.

Of course, if your child is struggling to read, that’s totally fine. There are books out there that can help inflame their imagination and all at the skill level most appropriate to them. The more they engage in that practice, usually, the better they become. But before any skill can get better, there needs to be a love for the art there to begin with.

Children do love reading, because they love imagination, and stories. That’s why they might not like reading alone, but light up if you tell them a story before bedtime. A great outcome is to help encourage a love of reading in your little one unprompted, so they celebrate a small trip to the library, or know a few authors’ names offhand. Even if it doesn’t make them a perfect student, it can help their communication skills, their willingness to experience something new.

But as a parent, how can you encourage a real love of reading in your little one? It’s not always clear. In this post, we intend to help you with that outcome.

Visit Local Libraries

Libraries are such a wonderful resource for families, and they’re usually completely free. There’s also often a great collection of children’s books and a friendly, knowledgeable librarian who can help you find just what you are looking for. A library is a place where you can browse and explore without any pressure to buy, which may put you off other places.

Moreoverr, a child can grab a few books they are interested in and see if they like them. If they don’t, they can return them a week or two later and pick out some different ones. Visiting the library could become a fun tradition for you and your child, something you do on a specific day each week or month, because if it’s a routine, it becomes a habit. 

Moreover, children love a good routine, and getting them excited for your library trip can help get them excited about reading itself. If you’re lucky, your library could enjoy a cozy little reading nook where you can sit and read a book together before you even check it out.

Engage In The Reading Club At School

Many schools have a reading club, either a formal one or just a group of students who read a certain book together. If your child’s school has one of these, you may wish to encourage them to join. It can be a wonderful way to connect with friends over a story. Sometimes, a child might feel more motivated to read something if they know their friends are reading it too, and that’s a good form of peer influence.

It also helps to turn reading from a solo activity into a shared experience, which can make it feel more social and less like work. If your child sees that reading is something their peers do for fun, they may wonder what they’ve been missing out on. It’s fun too, as they get to talk about the characters and plot, which can build a sense of community. This shared experience might even help them discover different genres they never would have picked up on their own, like sci-fi or more literary classics.

Show Them What You’re Reading

Children are always watching you and learning from your actions. If they see you reading for pleasure, it shows them that reading is a valuable and enjoyable activity as well. You might have a book on your bedside table, or maybe you just enjoy a magazine (that counts too)! As such, it’s a good idea to let your child see you enjoying the hobby even if you only get to it now and again. 

They’re usually quite inquisitive, so perhaps you could tell them about the main character in your book or a cool fact you learned from an post online. If the book isn’t appropriate (romance is very popular these days), you can always give them the suitable info alone. This helps make reading feel less confusing to a younger mind, and makes it a natural part of everyday life. You could read to them at night if you want to underline the point a little more.

Install A Fun Shelf In Their Room

It’s always good if your child has a sense of ownership over the books in their room. A nice shelf they can decorate and display can make books feel more accessible and special. For instance, you could make it a fun project for the two of you to decorate and set up the shelf. A child could arrange their books how they like, maybe by color or by subject. You can fill the shelf with a variety of books, so they have many options to choose from. 

Through that effort, they begin to see these books as their property, their collection. It’s also a good idea to keep the shelf tidy and organized, so the books are easy to find and the space feels inviting. It shows the joy of reading and having good works by you. This isn’t consumerist though don’t worry – who doesn’t love a good library? Having a beautiful, curated bookshelf can make a child proud of their little collection and makes them more inclined to pick up a book to read, and you could rotate the books every so often to keep things fresh and exciting for them. Perhaps you could even have a study corner, such as where they revise their third grade sight words or pieces they’ve written for school, carefully and proudly displayed on the wall. What a way to help them feel engaged.

With this advice, we hope you can more easily encourage a love of reading in your little one, and perhaps fall in love with books again yourself.