In an earlier post, I shared how moms can build a reading habit in young kids – not rocket science, but something which I felt had some subtle tricks involved to “make it work”, and that parents like me failed to figure out sooner… until my kids were way past that “impressionable” stage.
My elder 2 kids are now of school-going age so is it too late to get them started on this reading habit that is supposedly going to help them out tremendously in life or in school at least?
Well, if it helps, I never developed a reading habit from young but would probably consider myself turning out okay (since you are still reading this 😁). The closest I cut with being bookworm was when I was 13 and hung out with 3 girls from class who patronized the school library at recess everyday without fail. I felt like I had to follow suit then and it turned out to be a record-breaking year of reading for someone like me who only managed 1 Enid Blyton book my entire childhood. That book took me a month to complete and I forgot everything that happened in the beginning when I came to the end of it.
This brings me back to my point – kids obviously haven’t shed the “impressionable” stage even at 13, have they?
I also witnessed first hand how my elder 2 kids recently developed a ferocious appetite for reading the “Dogman” series by Chris Dalvey, with absolutely no effort on my end to kick start a decent reading culture at home. This happened after a classmate showed my son a copy of his Dogman series.
Kids read when they enjoy what they’re reading.
The quickest way to work a trick in this case is therefore to start with something that enthrals.
It was quite a remarkable sight to see both with their noses literally buried in the books at bedtime, first thing the next morning and then any random time during the day. My son especially chooses reading Dogman over watching Nickelodeon. And I am almost certain any parent who witnesses this would therefore give me a slap on my back and commend me on my fine parenting skills! 🤭
There was also once when I read out loud a Dogman book and my daughter stopped me when I said ‘convoluted’ (yes, there are rather profound words used in there) and asked me what it meant and how do I spell that. I take it as a good sign that the kids are building vocabulary. 😁
For the uninitiated (which included me initially – pun unintended), “Dogman” is a comic series. Nope, not lengthy, wholesome, grammatically perfect, “proper storybooks” written by Enid Blyton.
And you know what, I’m actually kind of cool about my kids reading this day in and out. My son lugs a copy everywhere he goes and even reads in the car until he realised that that’s giving him a headache (told him so). He fell in love with Dogman, and therefore with reading. And it doesn’t looked like it’s going to be a wrap anytime soon because he has already ventured into his first copy of another series by Chris Dalvey called “Captain Underpants”.
Whatever works, right? 😁
(P.S. Check out some cute doodles he did of the characters in the comics below. I figured that some practice on drawing skills isn’t a bad thing too. 👨🎨)
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