How to raise a reader (for life)

[Aabbaas]

Of course it’s not possible to predict what she’ll do in the future but I’d love if DD could be an avid reader growing up.
She is about to start year 1 and can read books with us but hasn’t yet reached the stage where she picks a book to read by herself.

Things we have done to help:

• started reading books when she was basically a new born
• her room is filled with many books and we read to her 2-3 books every single night before bed
• weekly trips to the local library where she is free to choose whatever she wants
• read her school books at least 3-4 times a week to practice

Is there anything else we can do? We are trying to gentlw encourage her to be a bit more independant in her reading but I appreciate she isn’t even 6 yet so she has time.
How much of what we do at home can influence whether she’ll grow up loving reading or not?

I am an “avid reader” (I read everyday), my mum goes through phases of reading or not and my dad only reads on holiday. I am like this because it was one of the only things I was good at in school. In year one I was reading at a year six level. I was able to pick books from the “big kid” section.

Nothing useful to add but we love yoto for audiobooks for car journeys, great for them listening to lovely prosody and dramatisation of stories (I'm rubbish at different voices!) . I know some people use them for read alongs with physical books too.

I could read before starting school and have always been a book worm.
My husband reads too and my 3 were raised in a house full of books, read to from babies, library etc
Only one of the 3 is a reader, I hope the others re discover the pleasure of reading.
Op i think you are doing all you can.

I think a lot of children enjoy reading until they get to secondary school. Then they get too much homework and reading for pleasure is squeezed out. Also there's nothing like studying literature at school to take all the fun out of reading... Shakespeare, love poetry blah blah blah ... turns kids off reading. And then having to learn the "correct" interpretation and write "correct" essays. No room in the curriculum for reading for pleasure and having your own ideas- you've just got to learn what the examiners want to hear.

I agree @PecanPied. I read loads as a child, was reading all the time. I was okay at secondary school but it was university that did it for me - I studied law and spent so much time reading for my course that I really didn’t want to read to relax as well. My love of reading came back, but I don’t think it’s unusual to have a blip.

It’s totally down to the child I would say. I’m an avid reader, always have been. Think taking books to read on the way to school, spending nights curled up with books etc. Neither of my children read. One is dyslexic and the other just has no interest. I read to both of them since they were babies, they saw me read, gifts always included books, we did audio books in the car, read together when they were older (page each etc) . I think all these things definitely help but they guarantee nothing.

My mother always left her own books around, spoke to me about them and I was so excited to get older to read her books! I’m still an avid reader.

My mum was an avid reader and growing up, she taught us to read as soon as we started school and would get books from the library for both of us.

From then on, I've always read books, it's one of my favourite things to do. My dad rarely read a book and my brother also wasn't a big reader of books although as he got older he started to read a lot more.

I'm 71 now and still borrow books from the library or buy in charity shops and probably get through around two or three a week.

We were always in the library and bookshops. Reading was something we did, several times a day and especially at bedtime.

DD is now 26. I was on the phone to her yesterday and we were talking about what we're reading and what audiobooks we're listening to!

I am avid reader, possibly because we had a vast library at home when growing up and both my parents were reading a lot (not sure when they found the time because they were both very busy with work and family life!). I also used the school library and local libraries on my own as a child and teenager.
I am still an avid reader.
DH reads a lot of books but I don’t know how his enjoyment for books has developed.
Both my children loved books until about the age of 11-12. I have been reading to them since they were babies, we did libraries, book shops, buying lots of books, everything you can imagine. And we also have a library room ( not on the scale of a palace size but substantial and dedicated to books and reading only).
Let me tell you that all that enjoyment f books disappeared around secondary school when phones and social life took over their lives with a lot of sports clubs and, of course, more school work.
After 18-19 years of age, they both got back into reading. Nowhere near as much as I’d have liked but it is more targeted towards ideas they themselves find captivating. Interestingly, there is more reading on subject matters as opposed to fiction.
So my advice OP is give them all the tools and behaviour now and hope for the best for in 20 years time. Phones/tablets are the killers of reading in my opinion. But we live in different times than when I was growing up and children need to navigate this additional distractions somehow, until they figure out for themselves that spending time on gadgets is a waste of time in most instances.

Reading asks a child to do something they have never done before: turn marks on a page into sounds, then into words, then into meaning. It requires several different cognitive systems to work together at the same time. It’s not a single skill but a cluster of skills that develop gradually. Literacy development begins long before school, through listening, talking, and shared reading. Babies who are read to regularly build stronger language networks that later support reading.

Books were an integral part of parenting our children. We’d even listen to audiobooks on CD on car journeys. We always tried to make it fun (like pp I didn’t dwell on the school phonics books too much - we’d get through them and quickly get back to ‘normal’ books).

So two of my DC are now readers even as adults, one could read beautifully and it certainly helped her comprehension and SPAG, but she never loved it. She even jokes about now, all the books I bought her for Christmas over the years that she would never read.

We aren't out the other side of teenhood yet but we have found no screens Monday til Friday arvo helps everyone read more.

Keep her off screens for as long as you can and let her read things she enjoys - even if you think they don’t ’challenge’ her. Carve out time to sit and read together - even as she gets older and reads independently, just sit in the same room reading.

my DD1 (18) was an avid reader from 1-11 but barely reads now, she doom scrolls.

my DD2 (9) reads well but doesn’t LOVE reading - she’d rather crochet or craft to relax. She does however love a Sherlock Holmes audio book!

Primary school teacher here and mum. You are doing plenty. We would always recommend a bed time book every night, trips to the library, book shop and making reading fun and relaxing. My daughter devours books. She's 10 and her teacher says she is excelling at literacy. My son who is 6, hates reading and is really struggling. Poor attention span and finds it really difficult to retain information and recall common words. He does like a book at night but it's more to prolong bedtime. My daughter had memorised the Julia Donaldson books by 2, he was still tearing the flaps off lift and flap books by 3. All you can do is provide lots of opportunities to enjoy books without forcing it. I love books and I'm in a bookclub, my husband only reads factual books. Everyone is different but most kids enjoy being read too.

Agree with pps in that you can do all the things suggested as we did when ours were younger but it might not make any difference. DD 20 barely picks up a book whereas DD, 18 is an avid reader. Both were brought up exactly the same and given all the opportunities around reading, modelling etc etc.

Older DD is sporty and musical and much more of a "doer" than a "reader". That's absolutely fine and I have learned to not keep nagging her to read because it doesn't work, and she's happy as she is.

You can't dictate the activities that your children will enjoy in later life.

Even of you do have a child with difficulties in these areas, ensure access to audiobooks. My kids have Yoto players - they're expensive, but my son in is a very reluctant reader. They've opened a gateway for him to access wonderful stories without it being a chore.

My daughter loves to go to the library and knows that I attend a book club, which she wants to join when she's an adult. She has a stack of books by her bed and reads every night at bedtime before listening to her yoto player to fall asleep.

I am an avid reader and I read to and with my DC every day. I also modelled reading and our house is filled with books. One DC is an avid reader (still at 14) - she reads every day and loves it, always has. The other DC despite exactly the same upbringing and exposure is a good reader but does not enjoy it as a leisure activity at all (he is 11)

My DDs are doers too. They were surrounded by books but you cannot make a person like you or be what you want them to be. Mine had a very varied array of hobbies but reading fell off their radar. DD1 sometimes laments that but she’s now ultra busy with her job. Like me, dc read on holiday and I still read newspapers.

For the future, an English degree is one of the worst for earnings outcomes now. The government does not get much of its student loans back from many English students.

Model reading, keep bedtime stories as long as you can get away with, let them choose what they want to read,

Mine is an avid reader, it dropped off a bit during the early teen gaming years, but he’s come back to it.

Dont force it though, nothing like it feeling like a chore to put them off.

I don’t think there’s a magic formula tbh. I’m a former teacher and DH and I love reading and we had a massive library of books when our DC were growing up. They both loved bedtime stories etc.

But reading was never something they did willingly. DS laughingly states that he’s only read one book in his life out of choice, which is sadly true! He’s now early 30s but successful career etc so didn’t hold him back.

DD read a little more as a teen but now in late 20s never reads for pleasure. She listens to podcasts a lot, which seems to be the thing these days! But she’s also in successful career, good uni degree etc so not reading didn’t hold her back either.

I’d say keep doing what you’re doing but they will be readers or they won’t be. They’ll find their own way.

I agree audio books are great, and they helped DD with a love of stories and helped with language development.

You can’t, OP, bluntly. DH and I both have doctorates in English Lit, I’m a former academic and obsessive reader, we live in a household full of books, and we both read with DS throughout his childhood, and he read fluently quite young and does well at English at school. but, aged 14, he doesn’t read for pleasure.

My kids are huge readers, use books to self-soothe when anxious or sad, read every day and well above their reading level. Both greater depth in reading, now aged 12 and 10 We are both big readers ourselves. Here is what we did.

1. Read with them, reading books WE like to stretch them and to share kids books we remembered and were enthusiastic about ourselves. We still do this, even now, don't stop when they can read, do it as long as they want it, just make sure you like the books too so that you can enjoy yourself and they can SEE you enjoying yourself.

2. Talk about books, read books ourselves in front of them, surround our house with bookshelves full of books. Get excited about new books, tell them about books we have read.

3. Take them to libraries, and also occasionally book shops. Let them pick whatever they want. Don't criticise or have an agenda about what they read, just let them crack on... they don't need to read 'classics', let them read whatever they enjoy.

4. always made them do 30-60 minutes reading before screen time so that it was a habit.

5. Bring books everywhere as an entertainment option

6. Don't give them a personal screen until they are older and when you do, limit the time on it very strictly.

7. Talk about the positive affects of books. They make you cleverer, they make your brain stronger, they can take you anywhere etc etc.

I'm not sure which of these things worked but my kids read more than most of not all children I meet.

This. I was proud to have raised avid reading DC. lost them to their phones as teens. Hopefully they'll come back to reading. And we held off on phones and then social media for much, much longer than their peers.