How to Place books at the Center of your child’s entertainment
It’s one the thing to have children that enjoy reading, but how do we raise children that might prefer books, stories, and imagination over loud toys or tv when given the choice?
There is so much vying for our kids’ attention these days. And even as a self-proclaimed bibliophile (lover of books) I can easily be pulled into the scrolling, binging, attention-hoarding nature of the entertainment choices around me. And while none of those things are inherently bad (in moderation) the benefits of reading throughout life are innumerable!
Here is how I’ve placed books at the center of my children’s entertainment:
· Work to Give Your Child a Love for Reading
· Surround Them with Books and Comfortable Places to Explore Them
· Introduce Them to Audio Books
· Use screen time to point BACK to literature
· Lead by example
While there may be many more ways to make books a favored form of entertainment, these are the ones we’ve used in our home. So, let’s dive in!
· Start to Give Your Child a Love for Reading
While this might seem intuitive, a child must love to read before they will choose to read over more instantly gratifying forms of entertainment. I won’t spend too much time on this, but if you are unsure how to go about this, check out my blog about 5 Tips to Give Your Children a Love For Reading and then come back to this one!
· Surround Them with Books and Comfortable Places to Explore Them
In order to choose books over other entertainment, they need to be as accessible as other entertainment. They also need to be in more than one place. If your child’s nightstand is the only place they can get books, they will likely only consider reading at bedtime. Having small stacks, baskets, or shelves of books conveniently placed around the house increases the likely hood that they will reach for one.
A little reading nook is also a sweet thing you can make for your kiddos. While the darling reading nook aesthetics on Pinterest may seem out of reach (or out of budget) a simple nook can be set up with a lamp, a cushion, and some photo ledges or small basket. Here are a couple photos of book nooks in different homes as our children have grown:
· Introduce Them to Audiobooks
As much as I love reading a paperback book with a good cup of tea, there is often dishes to be done and laundry to be folded. Audiobooks have always allowed me to continue “reading” when I don’t have the time (or desire) to sit still for long periods of time with a book.
The same is true for our children. They need to move. They need to jump, build, color, and play. Getting them to sit still and strain their eyes (& brain) when their body wants anything else is probably not going to foster a love for reading! Enter Audiobooks. My son fell in love with audiobooks when I started playing his Tonie Box as he was focused on building or racing cars in his room.
Audiobooks are not only a great substitute to screens; they are a good introduction to stories your kids may not initially be interested in. My favorite example of this is Winnie the Pooh. We stumbled on the movie and tried to watch it, but my son wasn’t interested. Then, we got the Winnie the Pooh Tonie and he enjoyed listening to the story and songs every now and again during playtime. After a while I asked if he wanted to watch the movie and he said yes! Finally, after these activities, my son now loves reading the classic Winnie the Pooh by A. A. Milne. It’s a sweet (but slower) story, with very few illustrations, that he would previously have had no patience for.
I could go on and on about our love for audiobooks, but if you’d like you can check out
5 Resources to Raise Little Book Lovers, or visit our Resource Library to find a list of Our Favorite Tonies, and Quality Stories offered for Your Kid’s Yoto Player.
· Use Screen Time to Point Back to Books
The previously mentioned experience of first listening to the Winnie the Pooh Tonie, the watching the movie before enjoying the classic story, is a great example of this. Reading can be difficult. If you consider watching a movie to sitting, and listening to an audiobook as walking on a treadmill, it’s easy to see how physically reading takes that extra effort that walking without aid would: nothing is propelling you forward except your own desire. So, like audiobooks, screen time can be used to further encourage the love for books.
The best examples are books that have been adapted to beloved TV Shows or Movies. The familiarity of the characters and experience watching them come to life, will help their imagination as you read them stories with the same characters!
For a list of recommended shows and movies that have been adapted from books (& where to stream them), visit our Resource Library.
· Lead by Example
Though this is the final point, it may be the most important. Children are much more likely to do as you do not as you say. If you want your children to read, they need to see you read. Simple as that. However, if you yourself are not a reader, you’re not alone. According to the Pew Research Center, only about 75% of American adults in 2022 reported reading [some or all of] a book in the past 12 months.
So, how do you do it? Well, many of the same tips and tricks apply for adults: find books that peak your interest, use audiobooks to get started, find a comfortable place to start reading, etc. When we first got married, my husband was in the same boat. Though a very intelligent man, he was never internally motivated read. (Not reading does not equal unintelligent). However, he realized pretty quickly that his inability to sit and read was holding him back from being a lifelong learner.
If you don’t personally read—but would like to set that example in your home—check out my post on How to Become a Reader as an Adult. In it I share the steps my husband took to go from completing no books a year to 3-5!
I also have an awesome resource library containing literally everything we’ve used to give our family a love for reading—our favorite books, resources, toys, and more!
