How I Succeeded to Develop the Reading Habit in My Child

Save your child’s attention for books in the era of social media and computer games

“There are many little ways to enlarge your child’s world. Love of books is the best of all.” — Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

Today, my neighbor bought a chocolate bar for my son. No, it isn’t my son’s birthday. Neither our neighbor offers him frequently. The reason for buying this chocolate bar was a bit unusual.

While I and my neighbor were leaving for the market, he noticed a book, Percy Jackson and the Titan’s Curse by Rick Riordan, lying on our couch.

He asked me, “Who is reading this book?”

“My son.”, I replied.

He was surprised. He saw my son grow up in the last few years. He never expected that my son would read this book. When we see a child from a very young age, we never really notice when they grew up.

It thrilled him to see my son having reading habits at such a young age. There was a reason for such excitement. He is a great fan of books. He told me he never goes to sleep without reading a book. I saw more than half of his bedroom filled with various books. The stock is such a huge that he could not accommodate it in his bookshelves and compelled to make stacks of books on his floor.

He was telling me, while we were walking towards the market, about the lack of affinity in the children for reading books. I agreed with him to some extent from my personal experience.

He almost became a fan of my son for the reading habit. I told him it did not happen by itself. I made some careful effort to develop this habit in my son. I still keep nourishing it from time to time.

The Beginning with Bedtime Stories

The journey started when he was two-and-a-half years old. He had just started enjoying conversations. He was feeling excited by contributing to it. He used to enjoy the never-ending quarrel between Tom and Jerry. Also started enjoying other carton videos on YouTube and cartoon shows on TV.

I realized that it was the perfect time to encourage him listing to stories. Every day before he falls asleep at night, I started telling him stories. Those stories were my self made. Each day I used to build up fresh stories. Those stories were very simple. As he was too young to understand elaborate ones. I had to bring fighting sequences in every story. It was always a fight between good and evil. I used to make distinct sounds and expressions to give a detailed description of how the fight is taking place in the story. He used to enjoy those immensely. He became obsessed with my bedtime stories.

Relating to the Real World Helps

It was about time to go to playschool. We were not sure if we should send him to school. As he was too little to understand these things. Our pediatrician only emphasized us to send him to playschool so he could get the company of similar-aged children. Besides, it was also necessary to prepare him for a formal school which he would join in the coming year.

We enrolled him in a playschool. It was tough for the first few days. As it was an unfamiliar environment for him and he was not willing to stay there for the stipulated hours. But he coped up after a week.

I started making him aware of the variety of animals, birds, flowers, fruits, vehicles, and our surroundings. I shopped a bunch of books online for this purpose. When I started this, he was very interested in recognizing all this. But after a few days, the situation changed. When he realized that it was no more a game, but he needs to remember all this. He was no more interested. Even he was forgetting what he previously learned.

Reading and experimenting are equally important for proper learning. After learning something, if we go through a process to verify the same, it creates a permanent impression in our memory in the form of an experience. I had to take the help of this idea for my kid’s learning. First, I tried to minimize the variety for each category, be it animal or bird or anything else. Second, I tried my best to bring a physical example of everything in front of him I wanted to make him aware of. Sometimes, I brought toys to resemble the object I want him to identify. And he was enjoying it again.

The Fun Part Should Not be Missed

He was just older than three years then. He has joined a formal school in the preparatory classes. He had sessions on rhymes, songs, painting, gaming, and other activities. For some of these activities, he had books.

The introduction of books made him missing the fun and games part. His mother intervened here. She took his books. Started reading the book, while lying beside him, like a story. It brought the fun back to some extent.

There was no guidebook for us to follow as a parent. Neither we consulted any popular parenting guide book. As the situation arose before us we kept on devising a solution for it. It was more of a spontaneous response than a strategic decision until then. But real-life do not stay simple for long.

It Is Hard to Keep the Focus on the Target

In our daily life, we are always surrounded by gadgets. Especially, laptops, tablets, and mobiles occupy most of our daytime. Nowadays, being connected to the internet has become a more basic need than the availability of healthy food.

Children learn mostly by following us. When my son was a baby, he had seen me using my laptop many a time as I was working on my research papers and publications. I used to keep him away from my laptop as I did not want to expose to electronic gadgets at an early age. But he had a dominant interest in touching that. Whenever he got a chance to touch my laptop, I can still remember his expression, he used to make astonishing eyes, and a rush of Saliva used to come out of his mouth and flood the keys of my laptop. Every time he touched the keypad, he entangled his tiny fingers in between the keys and clutched the keys from the keypad. We had to stop his repeated effort of licking my laptop. It was his only way of knowing things. By putting the object into his mouth.

The same happened for cell phones as well. He watched us taking in cell phones several times daily. If by any chance he managed to get a hold on any cell phone, he used to pour a part of it in his mouth. It was like a lollipop to him. One of our mobiles got damaged because of excessive Saliva infusion. We had dried it out under the sunlight for months to make it operational.

Thus, he has grown up with a tremendous affinity towards laptops and mobile phones even before knowing its usage. It is true for every child of the present generation.

Reading a book is much harder than watching a video on YouTube or watching a cartoon on TV. When we read storybooks, we draw a picture of every character in our minds. We visualize every part of the story. A number of activities take place in our head. On the other hand, watching a video on a mobile or on a laptop requires less amount of effort. You don’t have to imagine anything. This task has been done by the creator on your behalf. Instead, it provides you only instantaneous excitement. It attracts children and makes them mentally lazy.

Simplicity Is Always Attractive

We were worried about his affinity towards mobiles and laptops. He was five then. I was continuing with bedtime stories. But throughout the day, whenever he was unoccupied, he was watching cartoons on TV or spending time watching YouTube videos. I was determined to engage him in reading books. I thought of a way out. Instead of my self-made bedtime stories, I started reading comic books at bedtime.

He was too young to read books in any language. He was not capable enough to understand stories in English. I started with comic books in our native language. So he can understand clearly and enjoy the story. The Adventures of Tintin The Seven Crystal Balls by Herge was the first book I purchased for him. It was translated in our native language. I used to lie beside him and read three to four pages at a time. I used to show him every picture associated with the dialog of the story. Because it would help him in imagining the situation.

Slowly listening to my readouts had become a necessity for him before going to bed. Even he wanted me to read comic books before going to sleep in the afternoon on the weekends. Each month I used to buy a couple of books from the Tintin series for him. I repeatedly read each of these books throughout the month. Very soon his appetite increased to eight to ten pages per night. Also, he started going through the book by himself during his leisure time. Even if he could not read the entire thing, he was enjoying the pictorial representations.

It continued for more than a year. I used to buy books only from the Adventures of Tintin series. By then he learned to read books in English and in our native language to some extent. He was more comfortable in English, though. One day I told him that there is another comic series, The Adventures of Asterix, and it is super cool. But, surprisingly, he was not interested. He was too consumed by the Tintin series. I decided to buy a book from The Adventures of Asterix.

It was February 2016. I took him to a book fair and bought him Asterix and the Big Fight by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo. He was not very willing to buy it. We also bought two more books from the Tintin series. After coming back home that night, I had to convince him to let me read out from Asterix and the Big Fight. I read out seven pages. And it worked. The humor presented by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo in that book fascinated him. I knew it would happen.

Give the Time to Adapt

He had reached six years. Then he could read by himself. He still preferred comic books of Tintin and Asterix very much. He even used to take those books to the toilet. He had read each of those books in our stock several times. By then we had purchased almost all the books of the Tintin series and more than half of the books of the Asterix series. I never told him to read any of them. But one thing was very surprising to me. He still liked me to read for him at bedtime. The way he wanted his mother to cuddle him before sleep, with the same intensity he wanted me to read stories at bedtime. Many times I noticed that while I was reading lying beside him, he is reading the same faster than me but did not want to disclose it to me. I followed his eyeballs and understood. Later I realized that it had become a habit for him to listen to me and he could not help it.

It relieved me to notice that he was liking reading books of his own. I gave him more books like Bedtime Stories, Aesop’s Fables, and similar other books that he got as birthday gifts. He enjoyed reading all of that. He was also interested in reading some books on Science, Nature, and Space that are edited for kids with lots of nice images.

To some extent, I was satisfied that all my efforts over three years had shown some good results. But soon enough I realized that the hurdles were not over yet. As his reading appetite was increasing, comic books were not enough for him. He used to complete those in a few hours. And all other books he had were too simple to engage him for long. I felt that he needed some storybooks suitable for the kids. I was not sure about what to choose. So, from a local book fair I bought- Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne, Famous Mystery Stories by Peter Willis, and Something Upstairs by Avi. He was very enthusiastic while I was buying those. He liked the book Something Upstairs. He also started reading Journey to the Centre of the Earth. But, after some days, I realized that he is not interested in Journey to the Centre of the Earth. When I asked him, he said that he is unable to understand the story. He also told me that the book might be meant for kids older than him.

I faced another challenge. I was thinking about what could be the possible reason. I figured out that he is a little younger for reading the book Journey to the Centre of the Earth. As in this kind of book, you need to remember a lot of character names, their relationships with each other, their role in the story, connections between different facts of the stories, and many things. He was not matured enough to deal with that complexity.

In the meantime, library classes were introduced in his school’s schedule. He started bringing books from the school’s library. He was very excited about this opportunity. It’s not that he liked all the books he was getting. Rather, it gave a feeling of independence to him. He got the opportunity to select books for himself from the library. That was so cool to him. One day he told me that he got a book — Diary of a Minecraft Zombie Book 3: When Nature Calls written by pen name Zack Zombie and he liked it very much. I personally never heard of that book. I took the book from him and had a glance at it. As I can remember I never have seen such a book writing style in my childhood. It was more like a hybrid of comic books and general storybooks for kids. At once, I understood the reason for his liking.

Actually, he had got the book he needed for the transition from comic books to general storybooks. Comic books had helped him understand the situation of the story by the images for every dialogue and situation. But, in general, storybooks this support was absent. All the responsibility of imagination was on his shoulder, and it was heavy for him. This book filled up the gap. It was written in simple words in large fonts. Only a few sentences per page. Like a diary of a child. Few images as per necessity. Just what my son needed for his transition.

Consistent Effort Brings the Desired Result

He was consumed by the Minecraft Zombie books. The daily life of his similar aged zombie boy fascinated him. He had frequently mentioned the different activities of the zombie boy to us. It went on for around six months.

It was his 8th birthday. My wife gave him a new book — Famous Five Run Away Together by Enid Blyton. Soon it has become his favorite book. He demanded more books in this series. One by one we gave him twelve books from this series. His English tutor suggested him to read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain and the books written by Ruskin Bond. I gave him The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. But somehow he was not so excited about reading it. But he revisited some of the books I bought much earlier. Maybe had reached the maturity level required for those books.

As he was enjoying various storybooks, I thought he would enjoy fictional stories. I bought him Percy Jackson and The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. It was the Famous Five era for him. At first, he was excited to see this book. He read through a few pages. But that’s it. I understood it was not the right time.

Let It Flow

He is about to reach ten years in August. Just before the lockdown started, he has revisited the Percy Jackson and The Lightning Thief. It has blown his mind. Overnight he has become a great fan of Rick Riordan. He was demanding for other books in this series. We could not give him because of the lockdown. A few days back, the unlock procedure has been started. Some activities are coming to normal slowly. E-commerce websites have started delivery to our doorstep again. He could not wait anymore for the next issues of the Percy Jackson series. I bought him — Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters and Percy Jackson and the Titan’s Curse. He took one and a half days to finish the first one. Currently, he is reading the Percy Jackson and the Titan’s Curse. Or might be he has completed by now.

This is only the beginning of his journey. There is a lot to go. We will be there only to accompany him on this journey. He will need support for the upcoming transitions. His choices will be altered with his age. We will keep on helping him until he reaches the ocean of knowledge. Until he finds out his destiny.

I realized a few things while dealing with my son’s reading habit. First thing is, you can not decide on your child’s behalf. The decision must be his own. You only can help him narrow down the options from infinity. Second, do not expect that as a reader what you liked in your childhood, your ward is going to like the same. The choices may coincide sometimes. But not always. The world has changed markedly between yours and their childhood. It will impact choices. What we need to do is keep on supporting them whenever they face any challenge. Reading should be like a daily activity. We have to encourage them to keep practicing it. The rest should be like free flow. Like a river paves its path to meet the sea.

“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies . . . The man who never reads lives only one.” — George R.R. Martin