We received an e-mail from a mom who had a complaint that many parents share: her kids just don't want to read.

The letter
I have been reading to my children since birth. We have bookshelves that are overflowing with books and magazines geared toward the children. I model reading; personally, it is one of my favorite pastimes. They still hate to read and won't unless forced. What now?

 

Dr. Marie Carbo writes:
Don't force the kids. It's natural for them to love reading, so let's try to figure out why they don't. Assuming there are no physical disabilities, there are a number of possible reasons. Here are two at the top of the list:

It could be that your children loved to read when they entered school because of all the wonderful books at home and because of your enthusiasm. Perhaps practices at their school turned them off to reading. (It happens!) It also could be that in your desire to bring them to love books, you may have pushed them too hard and caused the opposite effect. You'll need to think about this. If you sent your kids to school starry-eyed and loving books, then find out what happened in school. If they haven't started school yet, then pull back on your reading time.

Remember: Always, always leave them wanting more. Above all, if you think you may have turned them off inadvertently, don't feel guilty about this. Give them small amounts of what they like to read, and they're likely to become interested once again. Maybe read a sentence or two from several books and let them choose which they prefer. Then read a little and stop before they want you to stop. A good technique is to stop at an exciting part so they want more. Let them bring to you just about anything they want to read.

If all this doesn't work, try hiring an older child to read with them. Sometimes kids will take to an older child and become fascinated with reading.

From Therease Metivier:
My youngest child is in kindergarten this year, and has been given the dreaded vocabulary list to learn. We tried to read the words from the sheet, but of course, according to my son, this method was far too boring!

I decided to make flashcards using sentence strips of different colors. We then made a trip to the dollar store to purchase a special bag to keep these important cards in. Allowing him to choose the bag gives him ownership and thus has made him think about how and where he puts this bag! We play games with the flashcards each night before we read a book. This has made him more confident in his independent reading skills.

He prefers to read to me and gets such a thrill when he recognizes a word we are practicing. When he can read the words and understands what they mean, I add more "Brain" words to his bag. I tease him by saying he is in the second grade instead of kindergarten, which somehow encourages him to try new words. You can see how proud he is when he sounds out new words or quickly recognizes familiar words. This is time consuming, but I believe it is my responsibility to work with him. Plus, next to bath time it is my favorite time of the day!