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 them see you reading and enjoying books, magazines and newspapers. Teach them that reading can be relaxing. Treat trips to the library as a fun thing to do. If they show interest in any particular title, make an effort to reserve it from the library for them. And of course, bed time stories as often as possible, to be seen as a special time with their mum/dad.

We are avid readers and always have a book on the go, which I think just makes it seem like the norm to them. We have afternoons where we will all sit and read with a hot chocolate and biscuits.

We used to read bedtime stories to them and bought a wide variety of books. We still do this now that they are older, as I find that different genres of books appeal to each of mine, but it is good for them to read different things.

One of mine was a reluctant reader and so comics and comic style books really helped to encourage him to forge a love of reading. My other child will literally read anything - including ingredient lists on food packaging if that is the only thing available to read at the time (ie. at the dining table)!

It's all about sharing stories - make words and ideas fun and the rest will folllow

I built my kids a secret reading nook hidden behind shelving... it has a secret door at the bottom to crawl through and inside are all their books, a ladder to climb up onto a platform where they can sit on cushions and read... I also love to make the books entertaining by adopting voices for each character and sometimes I change the names of the characters to my kids names... they all love reading!

We have always shared books and both dh and I love reading, so model it to the girls. Teen Dd said the other day she is going to read with her children and not let them play on phones so I was pleased (although she's often glued to her own phone lol).

Children love to read, when its a topic that they like, and maybe a picture to colour, or dot to dots to go with the story. Bedtime story is a must I think, its the time to calm the children down. if children join the local library, and let them join in story time, and then choose the books they wish to take home. Also not forgetting the reading book the children bring home from school to read. I use to like to find a slot with plenty of time, not rushed 5 minutes before they go to school. Teacher usually supervises that choice of book. I know that when I went to my dentist recently they were giving away a little pack with colouring pencils, and the story was about visiting the dentist, but the kids loved it. So I feel with MCDonalds a book would be nice, about burger and Mr chips, who eats all the burger an option for sharing, and maybe a little book to be coloured, I think the list is endless. Its very good idea, as the teachers like to see that you are teaching them to read at home, so McDonalds book will be welcomed I think anyway.

We have read to dd since she was born. We have alot of books and encourage her to play with them, I agree with pp about treating them like any other toys.

I read lots so they see me reading. Bedtime stories every night and lots of library visits.

Immerse them in story. Tell stories all of the time - encourage imagination and creativity. To enjoy reading, children need to understand how to let a book transport them to another world.

Talk about the pictures and encourage page turning from a very young age. Put on silly voices, make it fun, do crafts linked to books - go beyond the book!

Most of all, let them see YOU as a reader.

Most of all...let them see you “being a reader”.

Lots and lots of books in my house for the kids to choose from. Reading is very much part of their daily routine and we always have stories at bedtime. I encourage discussions about the story, what might happen, spotting simple words etc. My DD is just about to start school and lean to read. At the moment she is practicing reading to DS.

I have read to my 2 year old from day one. We make sure we have a big selection which get changed regularly, we have them in several rooms in the house and they are within easy reach of a toddler so he can pick them up when he wants. We have also been to the library since he was tiny, for rhyme time and play as well as picking books to read.

Lots of age appropriate books in the house - range of fiction & non-fiction
Books with little/no reading content eg Where's Wally
Bedtime story every night
Independent reading before lights out
Regular library visits
Comic subscription
Interactive story apps
Books displayed at child's eye level in bedroom
Library reading challenge in the summer
Seeing the adults read their own books/kindle for pleasure

...then it's down to whether they actually enjoy reading or not. I've been lucky with DD1. Hoping that DD2 will follow the same path.

Since my DS was tiny we have had books, picture books, pop up books and 'pull the flap' books to keep his interest, my tips are stick to 10 - 15 minutes reading every day, be enthusiastic and praise when words are read out correctly. Turn off the TV to avoid distraction, and if its the same book over and over - then so be it. Meg and Mog is our favourite and so well turned, pointed and and loved I can never part with it.

I've read to my children from a young age which has definitely helped as they are both passionate about books. Booking helped too.

Bookbug even.

How do you encourage a love of reading?

By having a Thomas bookcase in his bedroom, filled with a selection of books, and we pick a book each night before bed, make it fun, add silly voices to characters.

Do you have tips for building reading into your child's daily routine?

I don't really build it into a daily routine, as I feel it would become forced, we just read together when the time feels right, and there is a calm time to sit down and read.

How do you ignite your child's imagination while reading with them?

We have a chat about the story, and think of alternative ending, and decide what happened next, and what the characters are thinking when they had got home from their adventure, if we both have voices for characters to make it more fun.

I've always loved reading (though DH not so much) so really keen to make sure our children grow up the same... We've had age-appropriate books around the house from when DS was born - starting with fabric ones with mirrors, and now lift the flap books are all the rage in our house. We haven't forced them on DS, but he seems very interested so far so fingers crossed it continues. A friend did "Bookmas" which I liked as an idea - a box of 24 books in December, and every night the child gets to pick a new book out to read before bed.

My younger DC love being read to, we usually read with silly expressions/voices and act out certain bits, it really engages them and they love every minute.

Since before my children were born I have always had a houseful of books. I have always taken time to read to them and encouraged them to read to me. I talk enthusiastically about books at all times and take my children into bookshops so that they can see all the wonderful books on offer. In terms of fitting time in to read there are all different types of reading...comics, newspapers, adverts so I try to squeeze reading in on journies, when we’re out in town, anywhere really. I found the summer reading scheme that our council run each summer holiday really effective.

This might sound counter-intuitive, but just occasionally I refuse to read to my DC (aged 2). This is in the context of the fact that books are a real obsession and my DC would always choose being read to above almost every other activity.

Usually I say no only when we have already been reading for what feels like hours, and/or I genuinely do have other stuff I have to do. But the result is that he continues to see books and being read to as something special and desirable, and he will often take the books and “read” them himself, which I actually hope will lead to him eventually becoming a happy independent reader rather than someone who ONLY enjoys being read to.

Weekly trips to the local library is really exciting for young children, especially as they are now fun, colourful, play centres not stuffy old boring places like in the old days.

We have books available as a regular occurrence, children see us reading and enjoying it so hopefully mirror us.

We have a book case full to the brim of all kinds of books. They get books as birthday and Christmas presents and always have. We also regularly visit the library and get involved with storytime sessions and the literature festival in a local town. They have been encouraged to read literally from birth, I always read to them and made sure books were accessible.

How do you encourage a love of reading?

My DC is not lover of reading, so I use a sticker system for each reading session, one for his jumper and another for the wall chart, 10 stickers means a £1 for the money box.

Do you have tips for building reading into your child's daily routine?

I choose a book with a lot of pictures to discuss, and which takes around 10 minutes to read, our last read 'The Digger and the Flower' was a good choice, he loves diggers, it kept him engrossed and had a moral to the story.

How do you ignite your child's imagination while reading with them?

By putting on silly voices deep, high, and silly.

I make up book bags which have the book, a toy related to the book, an activity (like colouring in, dot to dot) which is always a picture from the book and then something to inspire imaginative play. For example with ‘The Tiger Who Came To Tea’ I put in a mini tea set so we could play our own version of tea time. It is a lot of work but I’m an English teacher so can see how important it is to install a love of reading at an early age.