Mumsnet users share their tips for encouraging their children to love reading with McDonald's

[JustineBMumsnet]

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Reading with your child can be a fun, educational and rewarding experience, but reading may be an activity your child comes to associate with schoolwork rather than fun. With their fifth Happy Readers campaign coming up soon, McDonald's would like to hear about how you encourage your children to love reading.

Here's what McDonald's has to say: "We're committed to helping families enjoy time reading together and believe in the power of stories to ignite children’s amazing imaginations. However it’s not always easy to fit regular reading into busy lives. As we prepare for our 5th Happy Readers campaign, giving away a free book with every Happy Meal, we're keen to get advice from Mumsnetters. Your tips and advice for building a love of reading with your children, inventive ways you manage to build regular story time and reading into your busy lives, and, with the school holidays in full swing, all the ways you encourage, nurture and ignite your children’s imagination. Through reading and beyond."

How do you encourage a love of reading? Do you have tips for building reading into your child's daily routine? How do you ignite your child's imagination while reading with them?

However you encourage a love of reading with your child and using their imagination, share this with McDonald's below to be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £300 voucher for the store of their choice (from a list).

Thanks and good luck!

MNHQ

Insight Terms and Conditions apply

Let they read whatever medium they want - age appropriate of course!

Teaching children anything is a case of leading by example. Firstly, my daughter has always seen me with my head in a book. Also, when she was little, I scoured the charity shops to find books that I loved myself as a child such as Enid Blyton stories. As she grew older I didn't patronise her reading. I attempted to read books to her that were beyond her recommended reading age and it worked out really well. Reading definitely has a massive bearing on a person's vocabulary.

My son was behind with his reading, but in a year his school awarded him with a most improved at reading award and he was given a prize of David Walliams' Gangsta Grannie.I put this down to buying books on subjects he likes or has an interest in. He loves dinosaurs so we read dinosaur picture books and his reading skills improved, He is now a fan of David Walliams and now needs little encouragement to read. Quite proud of him.

Some is down by example. I am an avid reader myself. Some is done by direct encouragement, and making time to sit down and listen to my children reading.

im an avid reader so my little one has always seen me reading. Start reading to kids at an early age helps as well. Gets them interested in reading from an early age and it carries on the older they get!

i think the best way is to lead by example. I love reading and make it known that books are interesting and exciting.
Daisy has picked up on this and will often ask if she can read something out loud so I can share it with her.

I think books just have to be a part of everyday life. From being babies, my three have had access to cloth books, bath books and board books. Books have been sucked, grappled and grabbed (much to my dismay at times) but they have always been around.

Some of my most treasured memories with my boys have been of sharing books with them, particularly when they were little and knew the stories off by heart, picking me up when I got it wrong! For car journeys, we have a lot of audiobooks, which all five of us enjoy (the HP ones are particular favourites). Now they're older they all enjoy reading in different ways; my eldest prefers his sports autobiographies, whereas my middle son will read everything and anything!

I read a book then my daughter reads a book to me. She loves to read

I have always read to my children at night so now they'er a little older, they love books and read on their own!

My oldest little one who is 5 years old, loves to read, she tries to read everywhere she goes whenever there is writing to read, even road signs and public notices so she doesn't need much encouraging. I let her read me a bedtime story before bedtime before I read her one.

I've always encouraged a love of reading in both my children, as I've introduced books from an early age. I found reading the same book regularly helped when they were really little as I would use sounds and different voices to help engage their interest. My daughter loves 'come little monkey' as she does all the animal noises, and likes to pick books that she can interact with.

Start them off wrong by making up bedtime stories, then introducing picture books at an early stage, then read with them until they have the ability and confidence to read by themselves.

Instead of a Home Movie Night, opt instead for a Stories Night when each member of the family in turn makes up or reads out a short story. Kids love spending time with their family. Too often parents take the easy way out by dumping them in front of the TV or letting them use those infernal video games.

I try to read before bed but if not whenever I have a spare moment, When i do get the chance I always use silly voices, my children love it and they try and do different voices for characters. Always fun, never a chore

My daughter loves reading and I encouraged this from an early age reading books together whenever we could

Books everywhere in our house.
I have made sure that DC see us reading so it's the norm. We also talk about what we're reading - if we're enjoying etc
I also talk about books I loved when I was their age - I think to hear books being talked about positively and with love helps to encourage them to love books too. Plus it helps them choose books when overwhelmed with choice - a bit of guidance like 'i really enjoyed this you might to' might send them off into a whole different genre.
We have a 'book before film' rule here - if a film is based on a book they have to read the book before watching the film otherwise I find they don't bother reading the book. So many of DC's friends go on about how much they love Harry Potter but they mean the films - hardly any of them have read the books as they just shrug and say 'i know what happens' Also this rule has led to loads of discussions on differences between the book and the film.

We constantly read signs and newspapers and just interpret it into daily life!

WE always make sure we have a story at bedtime. Now my daughter is starting to read we encourage her to do some of the reading, but never push it too much as we don't want it to feel like a chore. We also do reading just during every day activities, like reading signs and things.

each night at bed time we have a story as part of their routine. during the day my son will bring me a book and sit on my lap while we read it and talk about the pictures in the book. my youngest has a book from school, so when we get home from the school run, we sit down and read it together.

If children are read to from a very young age then encouraged to look at picture books before they can read, it sows the seeds of book enjoyment and learning.

I'm very lucky my little boy loves stories, we read together every bedtime, he has his favourite books but every now and then bring some new ones in so he doesn't get bored.

I read to them out loud when they were younger; and once they were old enough started reading out loud together.

Read to them from about 6 months. Read with them when they're beginners. Enjoy them reading to you. Don't stop when they can do it!

By reading to them from birth more or less, to give the idea that books are special, sociable and to be enjoyed. So they can't wait to learn to read to be able to access stories for themselves. Mine still remember when they were tiny, all cuddled up in my bed with the older two either side of me and the youngest between my legs, being the page turner!

Oscar's only 7 months old, but we've been reading to him every day for a while already - I think it's so important for children's development (and their imaginations!) to take an interest in reading, so keen to get him enjoying it as early as possible!

I make snacks and a drink when we’re going to read. We make funny voices and faces to go along with the book we’re reading, sometimes we use props as well. I always let me kids choose a book as it promotes them to be independent and lets them think it’s there idea x