Children and books. 10 tricks to make the little ones read
That our children, in the pre-adolescent stage, read little, unfortunately, is known, and the problem is serious because they are precisely the years of their first formation, in which the foundations of personal culture are acquired.
That the school is often responsible for this, it is true: due to a lack of material time rather than willpower, teachers often do not suggest extra reading, they do not stimulate young readers with targeted initiatives such as setting up a class library, 'monthly output to the municipal library or participation in reading groups. In the absence of school support, here are ten little tricks for making children read.
1. Register them in the municipal library
Enrolling your children in the municipal library or, better still, in the children's library provided by the provincial library system is the first step to take. If you want to trap a potential young reader, there is no more favorable context than a mysterious sea of books that wink from orderly and monothematic shelves. Certainly the books in the library exert an ancient charm on anyone: they are in the ideal place to be carefully chosen among many others and then they can be read in peace without any distractions. In short, the location also has its importance, and the ideal context for reading is a place where books are the undisputed protagonists.
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2. Take them to the bookstore regularly
Try to take your children to the library from time to time if you have the opportunity. Choose a fixed day, towards the end of the month, as a reward for the results achieved at school, for example, or at the beginning, as an incentive for future ones. Propose the choice of two titles, one on your part and the second in complete freedom by the kid; therefore suggest a simultaneous reading, since your title will almost certainly be a classic for children and the one chosen by your child a volume of "consumer" literature. Strictly enforce deadlines. Remember that there are also many remainders libraries where you can find excellent titles at half price and do not disdain the markets.
3. Talk about books more often
Try to find every possible and imaginable occasion to talk about books at home. Often ask strategic questions about the volumes your child is reading, on the most disparate occasions. Talk about the books you are reading. At the table, at breakfast, while taking the children to school, make the book become the subject of discussion as often as you can. In short, load it with an emotional value, make it part of the family, the daily protagonist of your life, an indispensable and not useless presence and a dusty ornament to be moved only for spring cleaning or to repaint.
4. Build a small library in your child's bedroom
Decorate your children's room with books and creatively set up their own personal library. Arrange shelves (they also sell cheap in flea markets, it is not necessary to disturb the furniture maker) in strategic positions, perhaps making them choose them, so that the books always address young readers in an interlocutory way. Make them responsible for order and management: their library must be taken care of in detail by themselves. Have them compile a catalog of their texts, where they will list the books owned by author, title and genre, the books borrowed from friends, those lent, those from the library and so on.
5. Give more books to your children during the various anniversaries
Ask uncles and grandparents to give books to children, rather than the usual games or video games, on various festive occasions (birthdays, name days, but also on the occasion of a particular school success). So that there are no misunderstandings, and to avoid duplication, draw up a list of wishes that will sprout (and replenish!) Gradually. In any case, be careful in advance and strictly on bookish gifts, so that no unwelcome surprises arrive: it is not certain that all books are good for children, and above all we must not assume that those who give books have already read them or know what they talk about ... also if there is no need to doubt the good faith of the person who brings them as a gift.
6. Make reading a pleasant and constant pastime
Make sure that the book creates an expectation, that it becomes an outlet, a small daily ritual where you can release the stress of the day, perhaps after dinner or in the afternoons without too many tasks or commitments, certainly at the weekend. On a psychological level, it will benefit not only the child, moreover removed from the excessive intrusiveness of video games and television, but also the parents, especially in those rare moments when a respite is needed. So, for example, to prevent the brothers' after dinner from turning into a fight to the death on the sofa, and to safeguard the digestion of mom and dad, there is nothing better than placing their favorite book in the hands of the children. The famous concept of the book as a friend, in short, in family format.
7. Organize group readings
Think about group reading strategies: organize small literary snacks with your closest friends over the weekend, suggest the opening of clubs (so popular especially among girls ...) of small readers, take your children to collective readings organized by the Common; in short, indulge yourself with creative ideas that combine reading with socialization. From the age of 13 (these are the conditions of the service) you can have kids enroll in Anobii, where they can create a virtual library (ugly Italianization for “library”) and exchange suggestions, impressions and reviews with peers.
8. Read to your child from the 1st year of life
Read books aloud to your children from the first year of life. From the age of six months, sometimes even earlier, children are intrigued by the pages from which stories drawn in bright colors stand out. Some studies have shown that starting from the year the child follows the unfolding of an essential story through an illustrated book. For this reason, it is useful to ensure that the child becomes familiar with the book from an early age, so that he can take on reading as a completely natural activity. For this purpose, a parallel-literary sector for children has been active for several decades (divided by age groups) that combines the symbolic-evocative language of images with the purely verbal language of writing.
9. Read teen classics to your children before bedtime
Starting from elementary school, read a chapter of a classic for kids every evening before bedtime: it will be a culturally valuable experience for the whole family. Some indispensable titles in the formation of children: “The adventures of Pinocchio” by Collodi and “The adventures of Cipollino” by Gianni Rodari; "Listen to my heart" and "The secret voice" by Bianca Pitzorno; the cycle of the Pirates of Malaysia and the Cycle of the Black Corsair by Emilio Salgari; “Denis del pane” by Roberto Piumini; "The Adventures of Pierino" by Piero Chiara; Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels"; “Around the World in Eighty Days” and “Journey to the Center of the Earth” by Jules Verne. Compelling, beautiful and timeless readings. Because if a child reads well, he has a very good chance of becoming an excellent reader as an adult.
10. Set a good example: read!
Finally, the most important thing: let your children see you often with a book in hand. The example, as we know, comes from above and there is nothing more enthralling on a cultural level than a family that reads in unison. It is not necessary to have two degrees and four masters to love reading: culture and education often do not travel on the same track, and those who have studied for many years may not necessarily be a book eater. On the contrary, the hardened reader is often self-taught.
by Laura Pantaleo Lucchetti
