Q: How do I help my middle school child, who can read well by now, read of his/her own initiative, and make a habit of reading books for enjoyment?
Dear Friend,Before I delve into some ideas I’ve discussed over the years with fellow parents, I want to affirm and commend you on your desire to ensure your child always has access to a rich, broad feast of living ideas, and a means to nourish his/her soul with them.We know it is a fact that much of our world’s greatest living ideas are preserved in words contained in books. The greatest of all books being the God-breathed, infallible Word of God in the Holy Bible. Most of all, we pray our child can read and “hear” the Word of God as they spend time daily seeking His face before the Scriptures.Therefore all of the ideas I will now list, pertain to the developing of this habit of reading God’s Word, as much as with other books with living ideas. I’d love to hear from you if you have any further ideas to recommend that have blessed your family.Ideas to help cultivate a home culture of reading:Keep consistently reading aloud together, creating special moments and entering into magical worlds as a shared family experience
Designate a tabletop somewhere visible for your child where you can spread approachable books. Ideally next to a comfy chair or reading nook nearby.
Don’t overlook picture books. Even though they are older now, beautifully written and illustrated picture books are for all ages.
Let them see you reading for enjoyment. Not only for school preparation or for work, but for your own pleasure. They will model after us. If they see us choosing a book over something else when we have a moment, they will notice, even if for now it is only subconsciously. (When they themselves are adults, they will recall images of mom reading in her cozy reading nook, for example.)
Design your home so that there are books in every room if possible. This has more to do with your home culture and the atmosphere of your home than interior design. Are books and the habit of reading highly regarded and treasured as time well spent?
Gift them a reading journal. There are special notebooks available that help them to keep record of their books read, their thoughts on it, ratings, and more. There is usually space for commonplace quotes. The one I gifted to one my teens is made by Cultivate What Matters.*
Do a reading challenge together as a family, where each of you choose a book to read that month, and prepare to share creatively about it to the rest of the family at the end of the month. This sharing time can be made into a special event with a themed meal for example, where each family member takes charge of creating one dish that pertains to their story read.
Create a book club. We moms enjoy our own book clubs, why not help them create their own? When they are at this age, they can initiate and facilitate their own. They simply need us to create the space and opportunity for them, and perhaps assist by coordinating snacks with their friends’ mothers.
Ensure there is plenty of time in their day when they can pick up a book to read for enjoyment. Are their afternoon occupations taking too long? Do they have too many? Do they have room each day for their “soul to breathe” and pick up a good book?
Schedule in a special “together but alone” reading time in your weekly timetable, where everyone grabs their book of choice, and sits in their own “reading spot.” Make it cozy with candles, blankets, pillows, and perhaps snacks they can easily graze and munch on quietly while reading. This is especially lovely in the colder months.
Finally, although I know it is the skill and habit of reading, along with the enjoyment, that you are hoping to develop, audiobooks are a wonderful option for our most reluctant readers, or for our children who are working through the struggle of dyslexia and other visual processing abilities.I hope those ideas will serve your family well, and together we will not only witness an increase in a generation of readers, but souls that grow in magnanimity for having fed on life-giving, Truth-directed, living ideas.For the King & His kids,MinFirst published in Common Place Quarterly Volume 005: Issue 004 (2023)
