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've encouraged my daughters love of reading from a very young age.
I make sure it is in her routine, so she reads a little each day and I don't force her to do it, otherwise it would take away the fun from reading.

Any local library events and we are there. This also keeps her love of reading alive :)

the older children have fave authors - eg. roald dhal- i tend to buy a good set of books for them to read at home.

for the younger ones i buy various books and read throughout the day and at vedtime

Let them see you reading. They're much more likely to spend time reading if they witness regular reading at home.

You can never start too young! Black and white pattern books to help a newborn to focus, small strong books attached to the buggy then chunky board books.
You don’t have to spend a lot of money on books. Check out the library, look in charity shops and jumble sales, Poundland and The Works. The Book People online have popular new books and familiar classics at reduced prices including boxed sets such as Thet Men and Thomas the Tank Engine.
Children love being read to and looking at books with adults, find time to share books together, it’s fun!

It was easy with dd1 who is 8 and Harry Potter obsessed but.....

We read every night as directed - the boring biff and chipper books. You have to just keep going.

We go to the library weekly and I let my kids choose their own books. We do summer reading challenge. Dd1 reserves books because I explained to her that was an option. We are awaiting Quiditch through the ages just now.

Dd1 was bought older books early on and they are always around to look at.

Acknowledged the slightest interest in more advanced books. Dd1 teacher lent her an Ottoline book so I bought the rest of the series and that was a big breakthrough.

Harry Potter Harry Potter Harry Potter!!

I was a big reader as was my mum - we just expected it really

I always find books that are age suitable and that I too enjoy as this encourages the kids to read them to me when they see how much I also enjoy them.

We have stacks of books in the house, particularly in both DDs' bedrooms. Regular visits to the library also encourage my girls to seek out books they enjoy. A book at every bedtime is also part of their routine.

I read to them every night, sometimes we take turns to read and talk about the book, why they like it, etc
We use the library often and charity shops as well.
DD s school recently had a book swap event which was brilliant.

I love to read and have books in every room, so it's very much the norm in our house. Ever since my 4 year old was a baby, I have read a bedtime story to her and now she doesn't settle quickly without a story and I'll often reward her with an extra bedtime story and she views that as a treat. This has encouraged a real love of reading in her and she tells me that she wants to be able to read by herself. Now involving my 3 month old baby and hopefully it'll work the same way with him 🤞🏻

One of my son’s first piece of furniture in the bedroom was their bookcase.
We read together every night & if we’re at home in the day, then as well. We have books upstairs & downstairs.

We regularly go to the local library where both boys pick out books to take home as well.

With my oldest who is 3, I ask him questions about what I’ve just read or what’s on the page to get him engaged with reading.

We also have several toys linked to book series such as Elmer & Gruffalo which we act out & then the boys end up playing & using their imagination to create stories themselves.

They also see us, as parents, reading from my kindle to books & come with me when I go to the library to choose books.

They see reading as a positive fun thing to do & regularly ask for stories.

I read with my kids, point out common words, encourage them to join in familiar expressions. My elder two are bookworms and younger is now starting to choose a book and sit by herself even though she’s not very fluent at reading yet, makes up what she can’t read!

I love reading, our house is full of books, I read bed time stories to the children every night when they were little and during the day too. We did all the standard middle class stuff of going to the theatre, making up our own stories, making up poems - all done with a sense of fun and enjoyment, so it wasn't like torture!!!!!

I have two late teenagers who could not be less interested in reading now!!!!!! So, I have no idea how you do it!

My baby girl is only 11 weeks but we love to read her a bedtime story every night. Getting kids interested in books and stories as early as possible seems the beat way forward.

How do you encourage a love of reading?

The house is full of books and we have always stressed how reading opens up the world to you. We do everything from subscriptions to a children's newspaper, to using recommended reading lists, regular visits to book fairs and the library. It's all about making it exciting and accessible.

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

Yes, we make sure they have quiet time every evening, which allows them to read in their rooms before lights out. They always carry a reading book in their school bag and on trips too. Plus no electronics in rooms in the evening or overnight! We still read to our youngest DC, but two of the older ones still ask to come and listen too.

How do you ignite your child's imagination while reading with them?
Make reading active. Take turns reading, do different voices, exaggerate the expressions, anything to make it fun. Stop periodically and ask them what they think of a character's reaction or what will happen next- that will teach them to think more deeply about the story. Ask them 'what if....' to engage their imaginations.

My philosophy is that any reading is valuable, but they should have variety. They can choose their own books, but if they have read a few of one type, I encourage them to try something new or ask the librarian to recommend something. Also, point them to adapted versions of classic literature. Seriously, mine have read Wimpy Kid one day, then abridged Romeo & Juliet the next! It really doesn't matter.

Join your local library. Make trips there a weekly event.

Read to your children from birth, there are great books at every stage in the early days I loved Peepo and Goodnight Moon so much so I've kept them as they remind me of happy times cuddling my children as babies. Have lots of books at home rather than kindles and make reading part of your bedtime routine.

Read yourself, so your children see you read and limit screen time, yours and theirs.

For older children subscribe to a magazine like The Week Junior which is engaging and challenges them to think about diverse subjects.

Don't organize activities every moment of the day they need downtime to discover the joy of reading.

Make sure bookcases are accessible for small children.

Buy them books that they might not chose themselves, fiction and non fiction. We give ours the chance to chose a book as a special treat if they've achieved something.

Ask librarians and people in bookshops to recommend books. Also The Guardian has good children's book reviews. Look at those lists of 50 books you should read before you are 12 and tick them off the list.

Our local library lets us take out 20 books per child per visit, so we often go after school on a friday arvo, and I let my daughter pick all the books she wants - when she falls in love with a book (Most recently the Michael Rosen Chocolate Cake book as it's so funny) we will then buy it to keep in our own little library.

I let them choose the books they want and allow them to read for 15mins before bed (they'll do anything to stay up a bit later!)

My boys are still too young to read themselves but we try to encourage an interest in books from a young age. We let the kids choose a book which we read to them. We try and make it exciting, use different voices for the different characters and speak about the pictures on each page. It might take longer to tell the story but the kids love it!

Have lots of books in the house and make reading a special time by letting them choose the books and cuddling into me.

Bedtimes stories two each every night and we go to the library lots

We always make sure we read at least one book at bedtime, and have lots to chose from, covering all sorts of topics, and different levels of age groups.

We have lots of books. Kids have lots of books, different kinds. Go to library a lot, I read and they see me, though this is hard because some of my reading is done on a screen as it's about the only way I can manage at times but I'd rather they didn't see me do this too much. Story every night as part of bedtime routine. Now elder ones are beginning to read for themselves they might read a bit of the bed time stories. Or read one of their reading books. Sometimes they don't want to do that's fine. Sometimes they don't want to for prolonged periods so I'll involve a little bribery/compromise/persuasion at times. Try and pick reading books they have an interest in and if they read a whole story they may get a little thing.
But reading itself is one part. We have audio books, story dice/cards where they make up their own, we write things down, notes to each other, have letters on magnetic board, sometimes ask them to write a text for me to dh etc etc. It'll get harder to keep their interest up but I want them to see the possibility of being immersed in a good story rather than reading for the sake of it, then hopefully it'll be self initiated.

Stories at dinner is what we do. I send her to get two books to read and she giggles her way through a pile of six she returns with, as she thinks she has one over on me. Now shes started to read, trips to the library to choose her own and is allowed to ask the librarian if they have any ...rainbow butterfly unicorn books ...or whatever is that days interest. They are so good at taking it seriously and suggesting alternatives that they do have. We are big readers so hope she will be too.

From an early age we used the local library. We'd taken 20 books at a time and I'd renew them online a couple of times before getting a new batch. After we'd read together at night they'd have another 30 mins to look at the books themselves.

I feel like I have tried everything suggested by others and also a little bit of incentivising to encourage my children to read. I am hoping that by keeping gently encouraging them they will eventually love reading as I do. We have books at home of different genres and they were always read to/shared books when little. They also see both their parents enjoy reading. They tend to read more on holidays when away from other distractions and reading is one of the only options! It’s difficult as I feel with something like reading sometimes the more you push it they more they resist!