Using Hobbies to Encourage Young Readers
--
Trying to get a child to read and actually enjoy it can be one of the most frustrating things when it comes to teaching a child. This is especially true for those parents and teachers who love to read. It is hard to understand why the child does not love to pick up a book and savor what it offers on all those pages. Do not be discouraged. Reading can be encouraged just by learning what your child loves.
Favorite Pastimes
When it comes to your favorite pastime or hobby, you usually will read and listen about it for hours. It is a passion of ours. It all makes sense. The same is true for children. They have passions too. Why not appeal to that? Reading needs to be something they want to do and that can easily be done through their hobbies. What does your child love to do or have a passion for? What is their hobby? Use that as a way to introduce the fun of reading to your child.
Passions
Does your child like to fish? Give them a fishing magazine. They might start out looking at only the vivid pictures, but before long they will be discussing the newest lure or some new hot fishing spot that they discovered when they began to read the articles. Even funny stories such as One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish (I Can Read It All by Myself) by Dr. Seuss will have children wanting to read out loud and giggle over the rhymes. Find the books on fish they will enjoy.
Do horses get your child all excited. Get them a book on horses. Start with the books that are more encyclopedia in style that describes the various types of horses. They will begin to read the captions and want to know more. Before long you can lead them to books such as Black Beauty or King of the Wind: The Story of the Godolphin Arabian. The more they discover the books with their beloved horses the more they’ll be willing to crack open a book.
Is your child interested in cooking? Get them their very own cookbook. There are so many out there directly written for children. They will enjoy reading how to create yummy cookies to share with the family and at the same time will be practicing their math skills. They will not be so eager to run from a book if it contains something they enjoy making.
