Motivate Your Child to Read by Making Reading a Family Experience
A common question I get asked is, “How do you motivate your child to read?”
It’s something I have had to think about because I don’t offer sticker charts and rewards for daily reading, but my kids are always reading. Our library rule (“you can only check out what you can carry”) was made for a reason.
As I reflect more about our lifestyle, stories are a central part of our family culture. Dad reading aloud bedtime stories every night is a family event that we all look forward to and sometimes the discussion of what will happen next happens at the breakfast table the next morning. Last year we bought a camper to take on adventures and we quickly named it Enramere (EN-ra-meer) after the ship from a favorite series, the Wingfeather Saga, which played an important part in the adventure of the Wingfeather family.
Our kids are currently in upper elementary and middle school so we have moved beyond picture books reading as a family. But I would say having older readers makes having a reading family more fun because the stories you experience together are bigger and more exciting for everyone. I’ve collected here some of the ways that stories and reading are a vital part of our family.
Read Alouds, including Audiobooks
Reading Aloud is not something just for young children, even older children benefit from being read to. Children can understand what they hear several grade levels above what they can personally read. It can be an especially great tool for Outside the Box Kids who may struggle with independent reading. While a struggling reader may be frustrated at what level of books they can read on their own, they can still listen to books at their interest level to absorb great literature.
Dad is amazing at reading aloud to our family, he does voices and everything! I, on the other hand, do not like it at all. I like to take the shortcut and find audiobooks of the stories we want to read together and just push play! Both are great options. We have a Scribd membership which allows us to listen to a wide variety of books across genres. I find it even has a few titles our local library does not. We are currently listening to our main history Text, History of US by Joy Hakim, as well as my own fiction and non-fiction choices.
Reading While Traveling
We like to travel as a family to learn through experiences as well as to visit family. On longer road trips we like to bring audiobooks along to listen to. We either check Books on CD from our library or download titles before we leave to our phones from Scribd. We have done this since we had preschoolers. More than just listening to music, having a story to follow helps the time pass quickly and keeps everyone engaged. We have found it to be the perfect solution for whiny kids after several hours of driving.
On our most recent trip, Dad and I were picking our Books on CD at the library and he chose one that I had never heard of and didn’t sound that interesting but he had read the book before and thought the kids would like it. I hoped we didn’t get to it.
On our return trip that audiobook was chosen and we listened to the first book in the Ranger’s Apprentice series. My husband heard about it on a list of books for middle school boys. I was proven wrong and we were all so engrossed in the story that I quickly ordered the second one in the series so we could keep going. We have been home from our trip for 6 months now, and in between other books we are reading the 9th book in the series and still very much enjoying it as a family (secretly, I’m just as much into it as the kids are!).
When we had more preschoolers we listened to the Adventures in Odyssey radio dramas when we traveled. Family lived across the country so we would buy a new disc set for each trip. The show has been going for 30 years so there are many stories to choose from. It is set up in 30 minute episodes so great time breaks spread throughout a long drive. Different seasons have different themes that also provide good family discussion starters in the car too.
We recently added a special read aloud tradition to our road trips. Dad remembers hearing his dad read Patrick McManus’s stories as a kid. He was a columnist who wrote about his outdoor and wilderness adventures with great humor. He thought it was a great addition to our camping trips. Bedtime in our camper are now their own tradition. As we have made other trips sometimes to hotels as well as camp sites the book travels with us and is now a new tradition and something we can look forward to on our trips. What makes these stories great for traveling is that each chapter is a stand alone adventure so whether it’s a night at the grandparents or a week long camping trip, it works just fine.
Motivate your Child to read with a Reading Race!
With a house of independent readers reading aloud isn’t the only way to have a shared reading experience. You can also read the same book at the same time and share your thoughts with each other. We did this with the Green Ember before we got to meet the author S.D. Smith at a homeschool convention a few years ago.
At the time our oldest was a fluent independent reader and we had another bedtime read aloud in progress so we couldn’t just read it as a family that way. My oldest along with dad and I decided we would all read it independently before the event. What happened was a fun family race through the book.
One person would finish an exciting chapter and tell the others, “When you get to chapter 4 it gets really exciting” and the other two would find time to read to the same point and further and come back and tell the other two, “You won’t see the surprise in chapter 7 coming!” and so it went until all three of us finished The Green Ember. The race was a fun unexpected challenge and we all eagerly awaited the convention to hear Smith share his own stories about writing about Rabbits with Swords.
Racing each other through a book showed me reading together didn’t have to be one person entertaining the other while being read to, but we could enjoy the stories side by side. As our children grow I am enjoying sharing stories with them even more because we can move beyond simple children’s literature to enjoy epic stories together and all their complexities.
Family Reading Goals
Similar to racing each other through a specific story that you want to experience as a family. Another reading activity you can do together is to set reading goals and cheer each other on as you reach them. This doesn’t have to be complicated and is easily adaptable for every level reader in your house. In January at the beginning of the year many places offer reading lists to help you reach New Year’s Resolutions and during the summer there are usually summer reading program ideas. Find one of these that fits your family and set goals for each family member.
FAMILY READING CHALLENGES
- Redeemed Reader
- Your Morning Basket with Pam Barnhill
- Imagination Soup
- Popsugar Reading Challenge
- Goodreads Challenge Tracker
At our house Dad is an avid reader and usually reads 3+ books a month so his goal is much higher than my goal which is usually one personal read a month, usually as an audiobook. I can’t even keep track of what my kids are reading, they each seem to have a couple going and change frequently. Everyone can work towards a goal that fits them and we can all celebrate together as each person accomplishes theirs each month. The reading challenge lists can help you choose books outside your typical reading choices to try something new.
How do you motivate your child to read?
