Ocean Breezes Blog

Do you enjoy reading?  Do your kids or grandchildren?  Here are a few tips to help your New Hanover County student become a life-long reader.

I have always loved reading, it was a wonderful way to escape the boredom of growing up in a small town.  I visited so many exotic locales, had so many adventures, met so many exciting people -- I may as well have been a world-traveler.

I always assumed that my kids would enjoy reading as much as I did, and I was 50% right!  My son is very intelligent and he does get caught reading ocassionally, but it's just not his thing.  His sister gets him a book every Christmas -- she keeps hoping he'll catch the bug!

My daughter is a different story.  She is a voracious reader.  Books are her drug of choice.  If there were not a library, I believe she would slip into a coma and not come out until someone handed her a book.  Preferably a mystery, though she does enjoy biographies as well. 

When she was a little girl and I had to have 3 minutes of quiet I used to sit her in a chair and hand her a book.  The conversation almost always went like this:

ME: "Sit.  Hold this book and be quiet until I tell you to get up."

HER: "I will NOT read this book!"

ME:  "Fine.  Don't read it.  But you will sit there quietly and you will hold it."

HER:  "Fine."

HER:  "Mommy, what does s-t-i-n-k-y spell?"

ME:  "Stinky.  Thought you weren't reading the book?"

HER:  "Shhh.  I'm reading."

She entered kindergarten reading on a 4th grade level, and by 6th grade she was leading her own reading group for 1st graders. 

I think she was born to be a reader, and my "punishment" didn't necessarily create a love of books.  But I do think that it helped.

Here are a few more tips to help the children in your life learn to love reading.

• Read something every day.  Let the children "catch" you reading and enjoying it!
• Make use of your local library. Take advantage of all your library has to offer.  Reading groups, story times, even an entire children's section.  New Hanover County, NC has a wonderful library system -- I bet yours is pretty awesome as well!
• Keep reading.  Even after your child has learned to read, take time to read out loud to them.  It's a wonderful way to connect and a reminder that you enjoy reading as well.
• Keep books and other reading materials all over the house.  I know, not one of us needs more clutter, but having a basket of books in the bedroom, living room or even on the screened porch is an invitation to children to settle back and enjoy a book!
• Talk about what you've read.  Show them that what they've read is important and valuable.  Discuss it! 
• If they see a tv show they have a question about, head to the library to find a book on the subject.

Here's to the children in your life developing a love of reading.  And to you finding the time to get lost in a good book yourself!