Want to Raise a Bookworm? Continue to Make Reading Fun!

I hadn’t read or heard about Emma Walton Hamilton’s book, Raising Bookworms, when I started this blog a few months ago. I picked it up a few days ago and found to my delight that a lot of what she says, is what I believe in as well. I can’t tell you how good it feels to find reinforcement and reassurance for your thoughts and ideas from a best-selling author and educator. Her book has been a good read – informative and packed with resources – and I have been meaning to write about it.

This isn’t exactly a review of the book. Just some thoughts on what I took away from Raising Bookworms.

1. “Why did my child stop reading?” It’s not them, it’s you.Hamilton’s book revolves around the central theme of making reading a pleasurable activity for children, so that they continue to do it long after it is ‘required’ of them. It’s not TV or the internet or video games, according to the author, that have been the main cause of the decline in reading habits among children. It is our failure to find ways to create pleasant associations with reading that is at the root of the problem, which has only been deepened by the emergence of all these other distractions that are a part of our modern lifestyle. What she stresses throughout her book is for parents and educators to constantly find ways to make reading pleasurable, to somehow eliminate the negative connotations that link reading with ‘work’ or ‘a chore’ or something that ‘must be done’. She offers dozens of age appropriate ways to accomplish this, some of which you may already be doing, and others which are very much worth exploring.
2. Don’t stop reading to your child when she begins reading independently. Now, this, I must admit, I hadn’t thought about. How many of us really continue reading to our kids even after they’ve passed that kindergarten/elementary school stage and become independent readers? Hamilton points us to the fact that it is not until much later that children’s reading and listening comprehension levels converge and they begin to understand what they read and what they hear to about the same degree. Until that point, they still benefit hugely by being read to, as this way, they can be exposed to material beyond their current reading levels. Besides, the other benefits of reading together continue, even if the child no longer ‘needs’ to be read to. Something to think about for all you parents whose children may be reading independently by now. Raising Bookworms recommends that you continue to spend a few minutes every day reading together.
3. Reading resources for the whole familyThe book is full of online and offline resources that parents and educators trying to raise readers, regardless of their level or age, will find very useful. I’d say if I picked just 3 or 4 from those listed and followed her advice through, it would make a difference in our lives.
4. Bilingual Babies – What about reading to your kids from books written in your mother tongue? The only disappointment for me was – I had hoped to find in the book the issue of language being addressed. With approximately every one in four kids in America being born to an immigrant family, isn’t it pertinent that this element feature in all our discussions on education. As important as it is to read to kids everyday( the general assumption being we’re referring to books written in English), it is crucial that we continue to speak to and read to our children in our mother tongue as well. Leaving aside the cognitive and academic benefits that studies continue to show bilingual children enjoy, there is fundamentally no reason for us to deprive our kids of the wonderful opportunities and experiences that learning different languages from an early age opens up. Especially when the language in question is one’s mother tongue. I have been thinking about this recently, since I realize that almost all the written material I expose my daughter to is in English. And although she enjoys reading and we continue to do many of the activities that Raising Bookworms suggests that associate reading with pleasure, I can’t help feeling I have failed to do enough when it comes to introducing her to her mother tongue. The language she has been hearing from the very beginning and the language in which, I am sure, she thinks. Why haven’t I exposed her to more of our writing?

While availability of children’s books in our native language is one reason, the other is, how rarely this bi-lingual aspect is brought up in (my?) discussions about reading to kids, early literacy and education.

And since I still have the power and the responsibility to show my daughter the way, I have taken it upon myself to do more in this area. And the tips in Raising Bookworms, although, written primarily with English speaking families in mind, may very well work with with any language.

What steps do you take to raise bookworms in your family?