Kids aren’t born knowing how to read. Someone needs to teach them that. So it makes sense that they may not be born with an inspiration to read, either. Again, someone may need to teach them that. So if they seem to lack the desire to read on a regular basis, here are 12 simple and creative ways to inspire your kids to read more.
12 Ways To Inspire Your Kids To Read
Read To Them – Read to your kids often. From the moment they are born. Actually, some moms read to them before they are born! And don’t stop with one reading session a day. Read to them often, more than once a day.
Surround Your Kids With Books – Make sure that there are books in their environment. Bookshelves full of books, baskets full of books, or whatever works for you in your home. Make sure your kids can always see books. Seeing books around the house will ultimately inspire your kids to read them.
Have A Reading Challenge – Once your kids are old enough to read on their own, create a fun reading challenge. Assign different reward levels and give them something fun when they achieve those levels. You could even create some sort of reading challenge passbook and award stickers when they reach certain levels.
Visit the Library – If you have access to a public library, use it! Take your kids there often and make it a fun outing. Inspire them to LOVE the library. Most libraries have special areas created for children and these are designed to be fun places for the kids to visit. They also have special events like story time and other fun things for the kids to be involved with. Don’t overlook all of these special children’s offerings at your library, because they will help to inspire your kids to read more.
Create A Little Free Library – The Little Free Library is such a wonderful concept. It’s fun to see them, and to use them, but how about creating your own? Let the kids take part in the design and building of your Little Free Library and then give them the responsibility of taking care of it by keeping it clean, organized and filled with books. Not only will your kids have fun designing and taking care of their very own Little Free Library, but this project may well inspire your kids to read all the books that are in it. After all, it’s their very own library!
Have Family Reading Time – Designate some time during the week for family reading time where everyone in the family reads for a specific period of time. But hey, remember, this means that you need to read too. Like….a book. Not your mobile device and social media. Be a good example to your kids, and they will follow what you do.
Make A Reading Corner – Create a fun reading corner or book nook in your home and let the kids have some input on decorating it. This could be something as simple as a comfy chair in a corner of your child’s bedroom, or something more elaborate like a special room or area in your house that your entire family can enjoy.
Look at this adorable reading corner furniture designed for a kids room. Or this corner book nook.
A fun idea would be to decorate the reading corner in a seasonal way, changing it up when a new season is upon us. Or, decorating it like a place in a book! Let the kids use their imaginations to come up with ideas on how to dress up their own personal reading corner. They will love the idea and will be inspired to spend alot of time in their own personal reading corner actually reading if they were allowed to have a hand in creating the space.
Have Older Kids Read To Younger Ones – Let the older siblings read to the younger ones. It gets them all involved and helps those older kids sharpen their reading skills while helping the younger ones.
Do Book Exchanges – Start a book exchange with other children your kids are friends with. Make the book exchanges fun for the kids. This will have them looking forward to swapping books with their friends, and will exponentially increase the number of books that everyone will have access to.
Start A Kids Book Club – We adults have book clubs where we choose a book, read it, then get together to discuss it. Why not kids? You could start a local kids book club with friends of your kids. Have them choose a book, read it, then get together to discuss it. This not only encourages reading the book in the first place, but it will make your kids really think about what they’re reading – because they will have to be prepared to talk about the book and what they liked and didn’t like!
And here’s another thing – not only will a fun kids book club or even just a book exchange encourage your own kids to read more, but the kids will start encouraging each other to read.
Play Games Based On Books – This is a fun one. There are so many opportunities here. There are already games based on books out there, like this Briarpatch Pete one, but you or your kids could create their own games. Think about what you could do with Harry Potter alone?
Practice What You Preach – This might be the most important thing on this list. If you want to inspire your kids to read, then make sure that they see you reading too. That means on a regular basis. Every day. And, not just reading your mobile devices, and checking social media. It means reading alot of books.
How Are You Going To Inspire Your Kids To Read?
Did you find some things on this list of how to inspire your kids to read that you plan to start with your kids?
The bottom line is that if you want to raise a reader, then you simply need to inspire your kids to read more.
And providing that inspiration is not a one shot deal. It’s something you need to work on daily, weekly, monthly and yearly, from the time your kids are very small and you first start reading books to them.
If you instill in them a love of the stories you read them and the stories they will eventually learn how to read themselves, they will find magic in reading.
And once they find magic, they will become lifelong readers!
Just in case you prefer to “listen” to your books rather than read them, here’s a nice opportunity to try Audible free for 30 Days. And what about the kids? Do they like to listen to books too?
Try Audible Free For 30 Days & Get Your First Audiobook Free!
Is this your first visit to Looks Like Books? If so, be sure and check out my About page so you can learn a little more about me and my Looks Like Books mission.
Mary Emmer, the founder of Looks Like Books, is an avid book enthusiast and self-employed entrepreneur, with an inspiring passion for reading and learning. With a background in the travel industry spanning four decades, Mary has cultivated a diverse range of experiences that have shaped her unique perspective on life and storytelling. Books have always held a special place in Mary’s life and have served as a constant source of comfort, inspiration, and personal growth. Her mission is to ignite the same passion for reading in others and to encourage them to explore new worlds within the pages of a book. More about Mary.