A True Love of Reading Starts Early
Aug 03 '00
When I was taking some courses in my recent quest to become a children's librarian, one of the units taught in a class I took was titled "Motivating the Reluctant Reader". The what? What on earth is a reluctant reader? I couldn't imagine such a thing. I learned to read before I went to school. I love books and have all my life. While other parents may have been begging their kids to read, I more often heard those immortal words "would you get your nose out of that book!" Starting with picture books, I soon graduated to the adventures of Laura and Mary Ingalls, Ramona and Beezus Quimby, and the March sisters.
But of course, I had a good start. My parents read to me. They read books, they told me stories, they gave me a good grounding from my earliest days in the love of books, stories and quality literature. While other kids griped about being assigned classics like The Little Princess, Cheaper by the Dozen or The Scarlet Letter in junior high and high school, I lapped it up. In large part, I'm sure because I was raised in a literate household where reading was valued as an activity.
Sadly, many children don't have the advantages I had a child. Today, most mothers work (mine didn't when I was little, a fact which I am very grateful for today), and they barely have time to do the basics for their children before falling into bed exhausted. In many households reading itself is not considered a valuable activity. It is disparaged as a waste of time, something only nerds or eggheads do, or not likely to make a dime. We have all been exposed to the stereotype of the "geeky" intellectual type with his face in a book, so incapable of navigating real life that he bumps into walls while tripping over his tongue if (heaven forbid) he actually has to speak to a member of the opposite gender!
But true love of reading is a gift. It will do nothing but help a child in later life. Nurturing this gift has to start early. I read to my baby daughter now, at 9 months. We sit and look at picture books together, and I carefully read her the words to her.
Also, to let your child see your own love of reading is very important, it seems to me. My daughter sees me read often, and is gradually learning that reading is a good thing, a normal natural part of life. She spends time in the library and the bookstore. She sees me pick out books with great love and care. She is learning that books are items to be loved and respected, and reading is a valuable activity as well as a greatly enjoyable one.
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Epinions.com ID:
Almacks
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Member: Dana Sherman
Location: New York, NY
Reviews written: 51
Trusted by: 28 members
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