What are your kids reading?
Once your kids are successfully reading, it can be tempting to just let them read whatever they like. Surely everything is helping them and adding to their knowledge and comprehension skills?
Kids (like adults) are lazy
As anyone who remembers being a kid will know, kids tend to take the easy route; choose the lazy option. If it’s solely up to them, will they be more likely to pick another simple book from a series they know, or a more challenging book from an unknown genre?
Guidance is necessary
The answer depends on the kid I suppose. If they love reading, and are naturally good at it, they will probably read everything and anything. For a kid who struggles, I guess you have to start by letting them read anything, as long as they’re reading! But at some point, they need to move on from that. It’s my experience that all kids, no matter how good at reading they are, can do with a little direction.
What’s the point of reading?
Reading is important for learning in many areas of life. But what about fiction? Apart from being entertaining, fiction is fabulous for teaching kids about character. They learn about loyalty, friendship, trust, truth and bravery. At least in good books they do! I want my kids to be filling their minds with concepts and examples that I consider worthwhile and valuable for their character and spiritual development. Great fiction expands their horizons and helps them to imagine things outside of their own world.
Living Books
The Charlotte Mason approach to homeschooling focuses on something called “Living Books“. From what I can gather, living books are those that bring the subject alive and teach you something worth remembering. That sounds pretty good to me! The key is to seek out the best books.
Kids need challenging
As parents I think we should be challenging our kids to read more complex books, and discussing with them the concepts within. Part of education is being well-read, so are we helping them by letting them diet on the literature equivalent of candyfloss all the time? Given that the number of books someone is physically able to read is not limitless, why not guide them towards ones that stimulate and challenge their intellect?
Avoid trashy books
Because homeschooling allows more control over our kids’ reading, we have deliberately avoided anything that looks like rubbish in favour of better quality literature. How can you tell? What about the whole “Don’t judge a book by its cover” adage? I once asked a librarian we know about this. She replied that you actually can get a pretty fair idea as to whether a kids’ book is worth reading by the kind of illustrations on the cover! Don’t waste time and brain cells on the trash!
Avoid unhelpful books
This can be trickier, but think carefully about what you want your kids to fill their minds with! As parents, we are responsible for protecting and nurturing their young minds. We are affected by what we read, as well as what we watch. I have noticed it in myself! My attitude towards my husband is more negative after reading books with feminist or anti-male themes! How much more powerful might unhelpful themes be on the developing brain of a child?
Bookworms & Booklists
It can be hard to satisfy the voracious reading appetite of a bookworm. It’s extremely helpful to own a reasonable supply of decent books. But mostly I use reading lists online for ideas.
For example:
- Sonlight reading lists
- Read Aloud Revival
- Someone called Gretchen Louise mentions quite a few lists
- A blog called Well Read Kid has all sorts of booklists
When I remember, I order these from the library to keep my bookworm happy! But more often than not, she’ll read through all the library books within the first day or two anyway. So then it’s back to hunting through our shelves and re-reading books for the 10th time.
Kids can surprise you
It’s not a good idea to introduce kids to something that is way too hard and will put them off for life. But I think sometimes we underestimate what kids are capable of! We recently allowed our 10-year-old to watch Pride and Prejudice with us (the Colin Firth version). Afterwards, she asked whether she could read the book. Since we had already discussed all the themes, I thought why not? Having watched the movie would probably make it easier to understand. I warned her that Jane Austen can be a little difficult to comprehend. However, she skimmed through it pretty quickly, and has gone on to read it another two or three times! Not sure how much she understands, but it certainly hasn’t put her off at least!
Read to them!
One important way to encourage kids to read more challenging books is to impose it on them by reading aloud! This really does help reluctant readers to become more interested in stories. Pick a time when they are able to sit quietly and draw / colour in / fold up washing – in fact, this is a great way to make chores more enjoyable!
