Raising a Reader at Home

Kids at this age are establishing independence and are often more motivated by their peers than by their parents. It's particularly important to make reading a social event at this age. Here are some ideas on how to do so:

• Join an online parent-child book group OR form your own book club (great advice in '20 Ideas for Starting a Book Club for Kids). For girls, I love A Mighty Girl and Girls Leadership). For all kids, I love Brightly. For boys, I love BCFB.

• Encourage them to use appropriate social media and web resources to create their own book reviews through sights like Bibilonasium or MoxieReader.

• Add a cinematic twist! What better motivation to finish a book than watching its film adaptation? I love incorporating a cinematic element into my book clubs, as in “Let’s read the book, and then see the movie.” Make the film night a big deal - popcorn, etc. Here is a partial list of books that have a film adaptation and here's an article that I wrote about family book/film programs.

• Use FaceTime (or Skype or Zoom or whatever!) to call family members to read aloud. My daughter and her cousins will spend hours reading to each other through Facetime (here's a video of it).

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