Share tips on encouraging children to read and WIN a full set of Wimpy Kid books!

My tip is just to start reading to them from a very early age and offer a wide variety of interesting books so they dont lose interest.

Children love illustrations! No matter what age they are. As a classteach of 10-11 year olds the class would ask me to draw a picture on the board. Tillie's Adventures are aimed at children of the 8-12 year old age group. www.heatherbmoon.com

My six year old boy is a very reluctant reader so it has to be something either very funny or very gruesome! He does not enjoy the books they send from school at all. Pictures help massively and we love some of Matt Buckingham's work - Fairytale Twists, written by Katie Dale and illustrated by Matt Buckingham and The Gruesome Truth Series of books written by Jillian Powell. Fabulous pictures to make lots of conversation about.
Matt also does Bright Stanley books which my 4 year old is hooked on.

WE have a whole set of Wimpy kid books which my two boys (7 & 10) did not get on with at all - if anyone wants them for postage they can PM me.

DS (6) has always enjoyed being read to and whilst he's not a reluctant reader he will always find other things to do before he picks up a book.

I abandoned any idea of what I thought he should be reading and just encouraged anything that he seemed to enjoy. So, whilst not everyone's cup of tea, Horrid Henry was a massive hit - starting with the Early Readers and then moving onto the paperbacks.

I don't know whether it is something to do with familiarity but DS loves going through series of books - we've ploughed through the Happy Families ones, Horrid Henry, Secret Seven, Frankie and the Magic Football, Naughtiest Girl, Daisy...

Finally, getting an extra 15mins to read before 'lights out' at bedtime is a big treat and definitely encourages him to snuggle up in bed and read.

My tip is to tell your child that it's very naughty to read books under the covers by torchlight at night then give them a book they like, a torch and a big wink.

Whoever Usborne do a range of puzzle books your son might enjoy. Then again you may have them already!

For less confident readers small fact based books can be good.
My son struggles reading aloud so small paragraphs and praise build his confidence

My son struggled to read and would do anything to avoid reading. He loved adventure games on the PC and I used these to encourage him as the games had lots of on screen information to read. I also found books with puzzles and quests were a real hit, as they were not just reading but there were puzzles to complete and you dictated how the story would proceed. Taking it in turns to read a page was successful as it kept the story flowing.

My son is 9.10, and is still finding reading a huge challenge. The school books are pretty dull (Oxford Reading Tree and such) and so I'm still on the hunt to find that magical book that get him hooked on reading, he is making progress but just doesn't seem to enjoy it and is very negative whenever I suggest any new books like David Walliams, Roald Dahl et al...
I definitely try to find books that interest him, he loves Lego and Minecraft so he enjoyed the Minecraft Handbooks and any Lego book, he also enjoys Toxic magazine which makes reading feel less of a chore.

My DS was a bit reluctant, he preferred information books to stories so I helped him to choose books that would interest him and not be too difficult. I always read and listened to him read. He used to enjoy visits to the library, but I tried not to pressure him into reading books that were to difficult, too soon.
I think it is important to offer a variety of reading materials at home eg different types of books, comics, leaflets and menus, travel brochures, catalogues, magazines etc Also for the child to see the parent enjoying reading - books, magazines, news papes etc. Also I used to write things on paper with him eg shopping lists, cations for photos in his scrap book etc I found that encourages both reading and writing.

I have always loved reading with my son, I think if you don't push them too hard they will just pick up reading and a love of books. I think go with what they read if its a comic that is fine, its still words, and never force them to read things they don't want too. I also found if you like one book by an author go to the library and research more books from the same author this always makes for a good read.

I think the book has to be fun and based on a topic they enjoy. My dd hates reading unless the book looks exciting, some of the books school send home are dull and boring.

I am an avid reader, and often have several of them on the go at once. There are thousands of books in our house: fiction, non-fiction, old books from my childhood, picture books, comic style books (like Calvin and Hobbes), reference etc. so from since they were born, our three children have always been surrounded by books.

My two daughters (one is in yr 1 and the other is in yr 2) were both able to read fluently before they started school. We read to them every bedtime and frequently during the day, almost from the start. The eldest is a real bookworm, and even before she could walk or talk, we'd often find her sitting up in her cot, trying to 'read' her board books in the dark! I started to teach her to recognise letters - using actual names, not phonics - from about age 2, just a few letters at a time, matching them with people we knew (M for Mummy, D for Daddy, F for Figaro (our cat) etc). Eventually this built up to showing her the actual words, like Mummy, Daddy, Figaro and she could recognise about 10 or so words by the time she was 2.5. She seemed really keen to do these, often bringing me her little bag of words to do with her. Then someone told me I was doing it all wrong and she'd be super confused when she started school because of the whole phonics thing (she was actually doing phonics in nursery anyway) so I panicked and stopped what I was doing and tried to do letter sounds with her but she just didn't get it and got quite upset that I didn't do words with her any more. When she turned 3 I gave up and got my old Peter and Jane books out and started to teach her sight reading (as she was so desperate to read). This gave her a massive boost and then I was gradually able to work phonics in too. She's hugely into reading and never without a book. Her reading was excellent when she started school and she read (of her own accord) Charlie and the Chocolate Factory during her first school summer holidays (when she was 5).
My second daughter, although she loved being read to, wasn't as keen on doing any reading herself so I never really did much teaching with her - didn't see the point in trying to force her beyond learning her alphabet (which she happily learnt). She is extremely competitive and tenacious though and one night (when she was 3), in the bath (where we had lots of foam letters), she grabbed an F, an A and a T, stuck them to the bath and said, F A T (sounds, not letter names). That spells FAT! DH and I were absolutely flabbergasted! She basically taught herself to read by listening to us working with DD1. She got on much better with the phonics method and although she is still an advanced reader (currently at about yr 2 level), she doesn't often pick up a book for pleasure - except in the car or in bed. She does enjoy our weekly visit to the library though!
DS is almost 3 and I haven't done much with him at all, other than read to him and make vague attempts to ask him to recognise letters. He doesn't really seem very interested yet, so I won't press the issue. He does love to look at books and be read to though so I'll just wait until he's ready to take things further :) Most of the books he most likes to look at are ones that have either photos in (rather than illustrations), or heavily feature trains or construction machines. I do think using children's interests is key in encouraging them to read - so many 'learn to read' texts are just so dull and insipid!

Wow! Sorry for the 5-tome post!

i think starting early is key.reading to the kids in bed has always been a helper with each of them.it gets them interested.it helps them associate a good time with being read to to wanting to explore more for themselves.
picture books and kids book have always been popular,give them what they want with the pictures and once able to read their imagination seem to grwo to want words and the stories with it.
id always advice sitting down with them and reading to them and then asking them to have a go.being expressive.dont hold back on characters its only you and them so make a bit of a fool of yourselves together with bringing the books to life.
if you have a library take them and let them choose a book.
be a role model.read yourself.they always wanted to compete with the sister who had her head in a book contatnly!!they wondered what they were missing.
time.dont shut them away with a book to keep them quite.this will then be associated with bad times,punishment or mum and dad shoving us away.make the book an enjoyable thing,a treat,something to want.

It can be a challenge to get DS (nearly 7) to read his school reading books but he's more keen if I pretend to be really excited about hearing them too. He's reading a series about space adventures at the moment so I keep telling him that I want to know what happens next and pleaaaase can he bring home the next one?! Not sure how long this will work for!

Find books that you really enjoy reading together. I love Roald Dahl and will happily read these to DS, doing lots of silly voices and it's fun for both of us.

Finally, buy a reading lamp for your DC! I recently bought DS a bedside lamp and he's suddenly really keen on reading to himself before going to sleep. So I read to him, then he reads a chapter and turns out his light. It also means that he can read the stuff like Beast Quest without me having to read it too...

Firstly enjoy books yourself ............. let children see
Read all notices to them, instructions etc. which you see during the day, hopefully this will make them realise reading is important.

But have fun, pick funny books with funny pictures and enjoy. Sit by them, give them cuddles, have set times in the story to do actions, these will be the books they bring to you to read

We're all bookworms in our house ... but my kids 9 and 6 go through phases. They'll read LOTS and then not so much. I think the key with kids is to encourage independence and fun whilst reading, whilst being there to share if they want to read aloud too. We're never too old for bedtime stories ... My nutty character voices always have them up in arms! They LOVE silly stuff, things they can easily imagine, things that make them smile and even laugh - things that challenge their senses and broaden their vocabulary and if there's a series of fab books - all the better!! I know our household would love a large dose of Wimpy Kid! :) #fingerscrossed

Find that having some type of social book club style event works - for family DCs anyway! We have a book that we all agree on (we don't mind rereading childhood favourites or new children's fiction come to that!) and then we sit and read as a family for half an hour every evening and then when we've all read the book we hold a little party/get-together and talk about it and then (if it's been made into a film/drama series) we will watch it on TV to round off the experience .

My tips are reading aloud every night so we can explore books and stories together. I try and read her stuff that she would find too difficult, but will read her anything she chooses.

Finding books that my daughter loves with no censorship .... Yes I mean you rainbow fairy magic series! This series allowed here to read and pick up reading "chapter books"

Finding books like Ottoline that have drawings on. It's pages of text that put her off. She read all of the funny claude series. I realised my daughter is put off by small font and pages of writing. Books with drawings and not every page covered in writing attract her.

If she is finding a book difficult we read it together.

If we are near a big bookshop I take her to explore the books, speak to the bookseller and buy her a new book.

My son is only 6, but already a keen reader. The school learning to read books were really dull and didn't encourage him to find books a source of fun at all. We managed to find some American books for early readers which were non-fiction style superhero books. We also found some LEgo reading books - Both of these helped him to realise that books could be fun, and could be about things he was interested in. He's currently discovered the beast quest books, and we are encouraging him by giving him a new book everytime he gets a star for reading t school - he's got 24 so far and is loving the fact his bookshelf is filling up nicely ( the books needn't be expensive to buy - we've sourced almost all of ours from e-bay or charity shops) He does love a trip to the book-shop though which we reserve a special treat.

Fortunately he is currently passing on his enthusiasm to our 3 year old daughter who is already starting to love and collect books.

I loyally read every night to my baby/ toddler/ pre-schooler but when ds started reading his own books at school, he wasn't that interested. We would read them but split up even a pink band book over 2 or 3 sittings. Slowly he improved. A year later I bought a set of dk StarWars books. I told him that every time he went up a reading level he would get to choose one of these Star Wars book. He read more as he wanted to own the StarWars books and started to move through the bands quite quickly. Whether this progression would just have happened anyway is difficult to know, but he seemed much keener to read whatever it was he bought home from school so he could get the next book. Now he is very happy (slowly) reading books like Flat Stanley from school and has more choice of interesting (to him) books to read.