In the age of tablets and endless cartoons, getting a child to love books is almost like convincing a cat to take a bath: a challenging but achievable mission. The main thing is not to turn reading into an obligation, but to present it as a pleasure, an adventure, and a bit of magic. Here are five proven ways to help your child willingly put down their gadget for the sake of paper pages.
1. Start with Personal Example
Children are champions of imitation, writes eva. If mom is scrolling through her phone and dad is glued to the TV, no motivational poster about reading will help. Let your child regularly see you with a book. It doesn’t have to be a serious classic — it can be a light novel, a collection of jokes, or even a cookbook.
A little story: one mother confessed that her son "caught fire" for reading when she became so engrossed in a novel that she forgot to cook soup. The child was astonished: "Mom, is the book more important than food?!" — and he also sat down to read, because his mom had found something incredible in the book.
2. Choose Books that Captivate, Not Just Those That Are "Necessary"
There is a parental trap: to give the child "useful" reading to help them develop. But children have their own tastes. And yes, it can include comics, sticker books, and stories where a catastrophe happens on every page. Don’t rush to judge — the path to classic literature sometimes starts with superhero comics.
Tip: go together to a bookstore or library and give your child the freedom to choose. The effect of "my book" significantly increases the desire to read.
3. Read Together
Reading alone is good, but reading together is magic. This is your personal time with the child, where there is no rush, phones, or household worries. Let it be at least 10 minutes before bed, when the whole world is outside the door, and you are together in a world of pirates, dinosaurs, or princesses.
But if reading is still perceived as a boring obligation ("read a page and tell me what you understood"), motivation evaporates. However, if you add an element of show — everything changes.
Example: read aloud together with the child, changing voices. Agree that the child "voices" one character, and you voice another. Or you can "bring the plot to life" through role-playing after reading, where mom plays the role of Mrs. Frost, and the daughter is the girl who fell into the well. Come up with alternative endings.
A little story: one mother of many children has a "cup of riddles" — it contains papers with questions about the plot of the books, which she pulls out after reading. The children look forward to this moment more than the fairy tale itself.
4. Create a Reading Nook — a Little World to Return To
Reading should have its ritual and place. Not just "sat at the table," but "wrapped in a blanket, poured cocoa, took my favorite pillow, and immersed myself in the story." Let the books be at the child's eye level so they can take them themselves.
Tip: add a small flashlight or nightlight in the shape of a star to the reading nook — children love the atmosphere of "secret reading."
5. Praise for Interest, Not Volume
Many parents make the mistake of demanding "five pages a day" and then making a serious face if the child only read three. As a result, reading turns into a competition rather than a pleasure. It’s better to praise for emotions: "You laughed so much at that scene — it means the story grabbed you!"
Remember: sometimes one sentence read with interest is more important than 10 pages "for the sake of it."
A love for books is not a sudden flash, but a warm feeling that grows from shared emotions, cozy evenings, and the child's right to choose what to read. And perhaps one day you will be surprised to find that your teenager quietly went to sleep… with a book under their pillow and a flashlight in hand.
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