Helping our kids read more
A lot has been said lately about boys not being as avid readers as girls in average, or about children – boys and girls – who used to read, loosing interest when they become teens. And although there are many things that can be done to make schools, especially high schools with their intense demand for classics, more reader friendly, as this article on post-gazette.com shows. It’s summer and I believe there is many things we as parents can do during this lazier of seasons to get our kids into the written word.
Summer means free time, and in reading the freedom to choose your books, instead of the obligatory reading to fulfill curricular demands. And even though we aren’t on vacation like our kids, we can set up the example.
Let’s start with the décor, spread magazines around the house. 
I’m not kidding; nothing makes my thirteen year old more interested in reading than finding a magazine opened, on a strategically chosen page with a cool photo, on top of the kitchen counter. And there are so many great choices, Ask, National Geographic Kids, Kids Discover, Click, Dig, Calliope, Cicada, Highlights, Odyssey, Muse, etc. Just choose a topic your kid might like, and make a couple of choices easily available. Check children magazines for a great variety of subscriptions. I chose this link in particular because it tells you the scope of the magazines, as well as their age range.
If your kid is already geared towards adult topics make sure to have not only general publication magazines available, but some literary ones as well. The journal newpages.com maintain a fantastic updated list of literary magazines organized in alphabetical order.
Nowadays many kids prefer to read on line, and the Internet offers amazing literary options, take a look at this post on the blog Chamber Four – Read More Books. You can leave your unattended laptop on the kitchen table opened on one of these fun sites. Make sure to read the article or story in case your child makes a comment. Even better, let your teen see you reading them.
If you are going for big exposure, an excellent addition to your family room, living room, or, again, the kitchen counter is a somewhat order-less pile of books. It must be modest, and it has to grow organically. Start with two books piled up and one turned down opened on a certain page, preferably where you last stopped reading it.
That’s the most important factor in this equation. You have to read as well. Children, and especially teens, don’t do as they’re told, but they do as they see. So make a point in being seen reading. Get caught up on action. When they ask you something in the middle of your reading linger and say, “Just a sec, I’m about to finish a page, or paragraph, or chapter,” and take your time. Then lower it with a disappointed look on your face, as if parting from reading bothers you, and say, “May you please be quick, Percy Jackson’s mom just told him who his real father is,” and stop, don’t say he’s Poseidon, no matter how tempted you are to share. Simply hear whatever they have to say and go back to reading. When you finish your reading time leave the opened book face down on the coffee table.
I understand that sometimes it’s hard to fit another activity in our busy schedules, but half an hour on weekends is quite squeezable.
Another excellent idea is to mention something exciting you read at a mealtime. Make sure to sound unpretentious, “There’s this kid on Unraveling that came from another dimension, that’s just odd,” and take another bite. Don’t raise your eyes for a moment, keep eating and move on to another subject. If, and only if they ask you might answer their questions very lightly. Curiosity holds great power.
If you are traveling with young readers, an e-reader takes up little space, just make sure to leave it unattended on top of your hotel bed when your’re in the room, and don’t leave the iPad filled with game apps by its side. When I travel I keep my husband’s iPad hidden and my Kindle, which I use exclusively for reading and taking notes, easily available. Certainly my daughters will ask for the iPad, but I can’t find it, silly me.
A very important aspect of all these ideas is to have your partner involved, both parents must play their parts. If your husband isn’t into books, maybe a sports magazine will interest him. If your wife doesn’t like reading Business Week, she might enjoy a romantic novel. Just get caught reading. It would be optimum if you could also read a Young Adult novel every once in a while. They cover all possible genres and can be surprisingly fun; you’ll certainly find one that will fit your taste.
The reality is that the majority of teens don’t read as they should. A study from The National Endowment for the Arts shows sad statistics, among their key findings:
Americans are reading less – teens and young adults read less often and for shorter amounts of time compared with other age groups and with Americans of previous years.
- Less than one-third of 13-year-olds are daily readers, a 14 percent decline from 20 years earlier. Among 17-year-olds, the percentage of non-readers doubled over a 20-year period, from nine percent in 1984 to 19 percent in 2004.
- On average, Americans ages 15 to 24 spend almost two hours a day watching TV, and only seven minutes of their daily leisure time on reading.
Americans are reading less well – reading scores continue to worsen, especially among teenagers and young males. By contrast, the average reading score of 9-year-olds has improved.
- Reading scores for 12th-grade readers fell significantly from 1992 to 2005, with the sharpest declines among lower-level readers.
- 2005 reading scores for male 12th-graders are 13 points lower than for female 12th-graders, and that gender gap has widened since 1992.
- Reading scores for American adults of almost all education levels have deteriorated, notably among the best-educated groups. From 1992 to 2003, the percentage of adults with graduate school experience who were rated proficient in prose reading dropped by 10 points, a 20 percent rate of decline.
The declines in reading have civic, social, and economic implications – Advanced readers accrue personal, professional, and social advantages, whereas deficient readers run higher risks of failure in all three areas.
- Nearly two-thirds of employers ranked reading comprehension “very important” for high school graduates. Yet 38 percent consider most high school graduates deficient in this basic skill.
- American 15-year-olds ranked fifteenth in average reading scores for 31 industrialized nations, behind Poland, Korea, France, and Canada, among others.
- Literary readers are more likely than non-readers to engage in positive civic and individual activities – such as volunteering, attending sports or cultural events, and exercising.
Good news are coming from another front though, a recent study from the Pew Internet, a project of the Pew Research Center shows that technology owners read more for all the four reasons analyzed, namely: pleasure, current events, topics of personal interest, and work or school.
I heard them and gave my teenage daughter an e-reader for her birthday. She’s been quite taken by it. Hopefully it will withstand the test of time.