How to get kids to read this summer

[houstonlibrarian]

• Tweet

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/reading/unconventional-ways-to-get-kid.html

Q) Let’s talk about the kind of kid who doesn’t like to read books. What do you do?
A) One way that a lot of people probably don’t consider as useful is by using books on tape or CD. They are really wonderful for a number of reasons. They use some of the same brain functions as regular books. They give kids a sense of narrative just like reading a book. These aren’t like video representations. They are entire books, so kids get the whole sense of narrative, the whole sense of vocabulary within context. And books on tape or CD can introduce kids to literature they might not otherwise read. They can also actually lead a kid into an actual book.

[LibraryLady21]

I am nannying this summer . . . I read to the 3 yr old during "table time" or we'll watch an episode of Reading Rainbow, and we also read before nap time. Just started reading Farmer Boy, I think it's his first chapter book - and he is liking it so far, esp. since it has a few pictures in it now and again (thanks to Garth Williams).

The 10 month old I read to as he is going down for his nap and also sometimes when we are playing on the floor, if he'll sit still long enough.

I know when I was a kid I LOVED doing the Summer Reading program and going to Story Times. I remember them as far back as 3 or 4 years old.

Of course, my sister wasn't as keen on reading when she was younger, she struggled a little and that took the fun out of it for her I think . . . but she still loved to watch Reading Rainbow with me - so I think books as television can be a good motivator for kids.

[houstonlibrarian]

I remember the Reading Rainbow.  I had no idea that was still around.
I used to like the Electric Company.  That's really dating me there.

[LibraryLady21]

I guess, technically it isn't still around . . . they lost their funding and are no longer being aired on PBS as new episodes nor in syndication . . . but my local library has a small handful of episodes on DVD, and we watch those.

As a kid I could still watch it on TV and my local library has almost every episode (to that date anyway) on VHS to check out.

[houstonlibrarian]

I'm actually kinda glad I didn't grow up in the Internet age.
I know I would have been on there quite a bit.  I had an Intellivision to play back then, but that was about it.
If I wanted entertainment I had to go outside and play.

Not that this is really all that relative to the topic, but still....