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

I have read to mine from birth so they have always been used to books (even if they just chewed them!) And books are everywhere in this house.

But the key is to read books together when they are little, then as they grow find a genre they absolutely love and can be hooked in by.

You need to make time for them to sit down and read and it helps if they see you enjoying a book every now and then too.

We have bedtime stories every night, lots of books around the house, and regular library trips so the kids can look at new books.

I read to my eldest regularly when she was younger, and now she’s doing so independently, I continue to encourage her, sometimes by introducing her to authors I loved when I was her age. I still read to dc, 4, and make sure both my children see how often I am reading (a lot!)

I have always read to my children from babies, school nights they can read for half an hour before lights out (we let them have a film on a weekend), books they are interested in and I read a lot myself which encourages them!

For my eldest who struggles a little more and so doesn't enjoy it as much we get a bit more creative, magazines, match annuals, cookery books and audio books!

My son lost the love of reading last year. He hated reading in fact. We joined the library and he is a changed boy. He has read more books in a month than he did all last year

Looking at books together everyday, and visiting the library especially for story time sessions!

I have two kids and I very quickly realised they like very different books. I never make them read the same. I love to read with them and I think reading with your kids everyday is a great way to get them interested in reading. I also think when they see me read or know that I have been reading this also inspires them to read too. We like books and we always have a good selection, we also have a kindle with a kids account for each of my children. I find that this variety also helps and the kids like using the kindle as it feels special. We also have reading time before bed where they get to pick a book to read quietly to themselves after we ahve read a story together.

I read to them daily when they were younger and always had lots of books in the house. We also listen to audio books in the car.

We listen to an audio book during breakfast, we home ed using a book-rich approach, I read aloud during lunchtime and my husband reads with them in the evening. I read masses while I get them to sleep in the evening, and my DH loves books too and we have lots of them!

My little one is only 14 months but I try to read to him often hopefully this will encourage a love of books

My son is quite a reluctant reader and I don't want to put him off books for life, so we do the necessary minimum of school reading books. I read to him every night though and hope that once he becomes more confident he will start to want to choose his own books to read and share.

Thanks for your posts everyone! The prize draw winner is @whitsunfells