One evening just last week, K did something unusual.
You see on a normal evening, he’ll ask me (or my wife) to read to him before bed.
But that night, out of the blue, he felt bored “listening” to stories and he wanted to read the book himself, instead.
At one go, he finished reading two stories that evening: Hansel and Gretel and Little Red Riding Hood.
I thought that was it.
But the next day, after school, he picked up two story books and started his reading marathon.
I was doing my work and I felt it was unusually quiet. And I was wondering what K was up to.
Only then did I find out that he was sitting in the sofa quietly downloading words from the books to his little mind.
That day, as he told me, he finished reading 7 stories!
Wow.
That was quite an achievement for a 6-year who recently was only motivated to read if there’s a reward.
Things have changed now.
And there’s no turning back.
When I asked him, he said reading for the joy of it is MORE fun than reading in exchange for a round of video game, for example.
That was what I was trying to tell him all this while… and finally he gets it.
However I have a confession to make:
I used to worry about how soon and how well J and K would pick up reading.
But not anymore.
As you can see, they now can pick up anything and read… even K – without the need to “bribe.”
This is the result of a SIMPLE thing we do since they were babies.
One thing we do consistently every night. Well, sort off…
Now we are enjoying the fruit of having kids who love reading.
I know this seems like a difficult (or even impossible) task for some parents.
Because some children rather watch TV than read.
Rather play computer games than read.
Rather exercise their fingers on the iPad than read.
It traces back to how you brought them up, really.
But if you do what we do, I believe your child will be bitten by the reading bug in no time.
It’s so simple that you won’t believe it. No we don’t use any tools or gadgets for this. It’s so basic (not battery-operated) that you’ll beat yourself up for not doing it.
But it requires discipline and patience though.
To see how we do it go to:
The Nonconformist’s Guide to Parenting
What’s more. I have a full chapter on helping children love reading in “The Nonconformist’s Guide to Parenting” too.
