[barcode_feeder]

I don't have children yet, but I expect to in the coming years. I wish to instill a love of reading in them, but I worry about how to go about doing so.

I spent so much time reading as a child that I'd get grounded from it, forbidden from reading at the dinner table, that sort of thing. But that love came partially from a lack of alternatives; we only had local TV channels and no video games or other comparable distractions.

I worry how, to a child, a book can be as effective a lure as a screen when I, as an adult, often find myself taken by the latter.

[autoexec]

First read to your kid. Fill your house with books and let them know by example that they are fun and important.

The other advice I'd have is to take your kid to the library once a week. Let them pick out a couple books (maybe also pick up one your choosing so that you can expose them to more things - kids can be obsessive) Once they can manage a chapter book tell them they are allowed to pick whatever books they like from anywhere in the entire library. Kids love having choice and flexing agency. Don't worry if they pick up something too mature/scary/boring/whatever. Anything they want to pick really is fine, but if they don't like it they'll have to wait until next week to swap it out.

Get them their own library card as soon as you can too. Make a big deal of it. Having an official document for access to the books highlights the importance of them too.

[sieste]

This will be controversial, but the one thing that worked to get my kids to read every day was to impose a strict zero screen time policy.

edit: ages 3-9

[theonething]

We're doing the same thing. We don't even own a TV. Toddler loves books so much we get sick of reading to him (but do it anyway).

[sieste]

yeah, going screen free is hard work. a TV/tablet is the ultimate babysitter.

[sho_hn]

Will it be controversial? I feel that to most of us in tech it makes intuitive sense that too much screen time isn't a good thing. We know the vice it can be.

[sieste]

That's true but most people will argue for at least some limited screen time. For us only a complete ban got them interested in reading, outdoors, sports, card games etc again.

[gallamine]

Ive spent hundreds of hours reading aloud to my kids. It's a big investment but I believe it's almost certain you'll stumble upon something that will catch their attention. It's also about family culture - if you establish the habit of reading at a certain time of day (we do it after dinner / before bed) then it's easy to stick with that over turning to other things to fill the time.

[SoftTalker]

Read to your child, and provide books and opportunity once he starts learning to read. He'll either be drawn to it or not. I've had three kids and their interests and things that motivate them are all wildly different. So a lot of it just boils down to "if he likes reading, he'll read."

Do the same with music, and sports/physical activity, and other things.

[sho_hn]

I was not read to as a child, but I was pretty good at reading from an early age and grew to love it. Adult life is busy and many other activities compete for my attention now, but I still manage to finish around 10-20 books a year. This lower bound is not impressive to any serious, habitual reader, but I'm happy I manage to keep it up.

I think what the trick for me:

- My parents read regularly, so it just was a normal part of life in my eyes.

- My parents' siblings would gift me volumes of children's book series for birthdays and holidays. I'd look forward to getting the next book in a series for months, and it was a big exciting event for me.

- Adults were willing to discuss the books I read with me (and sometimes humor me by reading one), so I got recognition from them for what I was doing, and learned to connect over books. If a book was important to me, other people were willing to take my feelings seriously. Being rooted in a book made them legitimate.

- My dad was not a spend-y sort of person, but once a year for Christmas, he'd rifle through a book club catalog with me and let me order more or less any book I wanted. This was exciting, and we got tons of random books at home filling the shelves.

- Access to books, i.e. those full shelves. Bored to tears on a rainy day? My father would tell me to pick a book.

[AlecSchueler]

Just to note: their child might not be a boy. Feels a bit disconcerting to see the male default used here.

[patrickdavey]

I'm actually sorry to see this down voted.

I have a daughter, and it is just crazy once you start reading books how much is needlessly male focussed.

From the first farmyard books where the boy is driving the tractor and the girl is in the cart on the back. To fantastic Mr fox and his four small foxes (all male) etc etc. It's just extremely unbalanced.

In our community, there's every reason not to use a male default everywhere. It would not have changed the original commenters meaning at all to have said "they" instead of "him" and would have been more inclusive. Surely that's a good default?

[theonething]

Here I've seen female and male defaults used as well as "they". I haven't noticed any prevalence for one other the others, probably because it makes no difference to me. I understand from the context that the text is applicable to any gender.

[AlecSchueler]

I'm curious, if it makes no difference to you then why not extend your sympathy to those who feel they are affected by it and simply use a gender neutral pronoun?

[KMag]

I'm not sure how much of it is just not allowing my 2-year-old screen time (and not owning a television), but his 3 favorite activities are being read to, playing in the park, and playing with his wooden trains.

I wish it were as simple as making reading time quality bonding time. However, that doesn't seem sufficient. My two favorite activities these days are reading to him and giving him a bath, and yet he has a love/hate relationship with his bath. He acts like he hates the bath, until I announce to him that I'm going to take a bath without him. I think he really does hate his bath (and that it cuts into his train time), but puts up with it in order to spend time with me.

I do think it really helps that I give him time to examine the page and imagine before I turn the page. Also, sometimes he really wants to flip the page before I'm done reading, and I'm less happy with that, but let it happen.

[ip26]

Expose them to good books. Visit the library, fill the bookshelves at home, read to them. All kids love stories, so your job is simply to make it a nigh-certainty they will encounter stories they love.

Don’t try to force specific stories on them- just provide a buffet of great choices.

[User23]

Marry someone who loves reading.