How to raise kids who read

[ShawnD1]

reading is useless if you don't crush the corresponding sections on standardized exams

*zips up flame suit*

Standardized exams are worthless because they only test if I read the course material. They should give me credit in history class because I know a lot of shit about dinosaurs.

 

[roguerower]

I absolutely love to read. I just don't buy enough books to keep me going, which is kind of why I'm looking into a kindle. When I visited my girlfriend at the beginning of the month, I had nothing to do for the flights. My laptop had just been reformatted and my zune was dead so my first stop was the book store in the airport. I picked up "Under the Dome" by Stephen King and started reading. Read it off and on while recupe*ahem*visiting and managed to finish it 2 days after I got home.

My parents raised me along the same lines as those recommended in the article. My first console was the 360 that I bought my junior year of college. My TV time up to about sophomore year of HS was limited, as was my computer time. During elementary/middle school I was outside playing after doing whatever constituted HW. On the weekends my parents would literally throw me out the door and tell me not to be home until dinner (I lived on a military base so there was a ton of shit to do and all my friends lived within a sq. mile).

Reading for me is so much better than watching a movie/TV. While the instant gratification of a TV is nice, I enjoy a properly developed plot line with multiple characters much more.

TridenT - Fuck you, you ignorant whiny little excuse for a human being. If you're so smart, WHY THE FUCK CAN'T YOU FINISH COMMUNITY COLLEGE? Do you have an O.Chem PhD in your back pocket like uclaLabrat? No, you can't even find the brains to finish a simple little Calc I class. Fuck. You.

 

[duragezic]

I generally like to read. I wasn't a big reader when I was young but I didn't hate it like many peers. I read Rainbow Six (700+ pages) when I was like 12 . I read a real good book on Kurt Cobain and Nirvana (really dug them when I was in middle school) and I remember writing a 3-4 page book report on it from nearly all memory.

Then once I got the internet I was always reading about computers and games and whatnot. These days I prefer nonfiction but some fiction are good.

 

[ShawnD1]

My parents raised me along the same lines as those recommended in the article. My first console was the 360 that I bought my junior year of college.

Most of the people I know who were booted out of the house all the time turned out horrible. I remember one of my friends had this stupid rule where he was only allowed to play games for 1 hour per day. He was the first person on the block to own a Super Nintendo and they pulled that. Because of that rule, and how his parents wouldn't let him watch violent movies, he would spend a hell of a lot of time at my house. He seemed closer to my parents than he was to his own parents.

 

[IronWing]

Kill your television.

 

[Arcadio]

I've always loved to read. I remember back in middle school I used to pick up a volume of the Encyclopedia Britannica my dad bought me and I just read entry after entry for the entire afternoon.

 

[Estrella]

Isn't it ironic that back when I was heavy drinker I never read and thought I already knew everything.

If this site had COTD, this would totally be it.

 

[ShawnD1]

If this site had COTD, this would totally be it.

I had to google wtf you are talking about. Top google result:

http://www.catster.com/forums/Cat_of_the_Week/thread/678797

Sophie is COTD!!
Celebrate a special cat's special time in the spotlight as Catster's Cat of the Day and Cat of the Week or meow about a deserving cat you'd like to see featured on Catster's homepage!

D: D:

 

[hans030390]

There's an easy solution to this problem. Have robot children.

 

[pontifex]

I've always been a prolific reader. I actually read for enjoyment...and think it's MUCH better than the television.
I read to both my kids when they were little. As they got older, I made them read to me...and kept choosing harder and harder books for them to read. As a result, both kids are excellent readers, but my son reads much more than my daughter. Maybe it's availability of preferred reading material...I dunno.

When my grandkids lived with us, I also read to them nightly and was teaching them to read to me. The oldest, (now in 6th grade) is a pretty good reader...and reads some of my college textbooks (with reasonable understanding) when he comes to visit.

I have to agree there in most cases. I mean I still find stuff I like on TV, but finding a good book is 10x easier than finding good TV shows. And when I read, it's almost like I have a movie playing in my head of what I am reading. I mostly read books before I go to bed.

 

[Born2bwire]

Books suck.

Never liked reading many of them. They were just dreadfully boring.

Yeah we can tell that easily enough, Feynman.

I love to read and I read a ton as a kid. I grew up with video games all around me but I still did a lot of reading. Heck though, a lot of computer games involved a lot of reading and that was part of the entertainment. I was perfectly happy with Encyclopedia Brown, Roahl Dahl and John Bellairs. You don't need gross out to capture attention, you just need to get kids reading and help direct them to books that suit their interests.

 

[Beev]

I propose a Center for Kids Who Can't Read Good and Wanna Learn to Do Other Stuff Good Too.

 

[Train]

My mom made me and my siblings join the summer reading club at the library. Basically you had to read X number of books a week and earn prizes. If you were in the top tier you had a free pizza party at the end of the summer.

I kinda skated through, totally BS'd about books i'd check out, but it did expose me to a lot of knowledge and literature in the end.

When we were teenagers she would get magazine subscriptions to keep us reading. Sports Illustrated was the big one for the boys since we were so into sports.

 

[Train]

I propose a Center for Kids Who Can't Read Good and Wanna Learn to Do Other Stuff Good Too.

How are they supposed to use it if they can't even fit in the building?

 

[Beev]

How are they supposed to use it if they can't even fit in the building?

You're right! It needs to be at least... three times the size!

 

[Born2bwire]

My mom made me and my siblings join the summer reading club at the library. Basically you had to read X number of books a week and earn prizes. If you were in the top tier you had a free pizza party at the end of the summer.

I kinda skated through, totally BS'd about books i'd check out, but it did expose me to a lot of knowledge and literature in the end.

When we were teenagers she would get magazine subscriptions to keep us reading. Sports Illustrated was the big one for the boys since we were so into sports.

Yeah, I remember that. I was always keen on the reading contests that my class would hold most years. And my mother always had my brother and I each choose a subscription to a magazine that we wanted. Those also helped encourage us to read even if it was something like Boy's Life, Nintendo Power or Gamepro.

 

[Train]

Yeah, I remember that. I was always keen on the reading contests that my class would hold most years. And my mother always had my brother and I each choose a subscription to a magazine that we wanted. Those also helped encourage us to read even if it was something like Boy's Life, Nintendo Power or Gamepro.

Ahh I totally forgot Boys Life, what a great magazine. Also had a sub to the Lego magazine, I think it was called "Bricks"

No need for a Nintedo mag, we were the only kids who never got one, or any console for that matter. My mom thought Nintendo/Sega were evil.

 

[PingSpike]

Just make sure the book has sex in it and that should get them reading. It worked for me.

Anyway, I don't really love to read fiction books and generally don't. I waste an eternity on wikipedia and read nonfiction stuff fairly often. My wife is a reading machine though, she just tears through books. But then she rereads them all the time which I don't understand.

 

[Barfo]

My daughter is 15, and I only have her a couple months a year. Still I've been able to turn her into a voracious reader. Not just for recreaction, but academically as well. While the rest of her class is reading wiki's and middle school books on historic figures for their reports, she's tackling peer-reviewed journals and college level biographies (even going so far as to look into the bibliography and get primary sources). Books are generally the only (or one of a couple) things on her wish lists and present lists.

If I had to assess why I'd say it has three sources:

1) I read to her ALL the time growing up
2) I, and those I associate with, supply constant positive reinforcement for reading
3) I do my best not to ever provide her answers, only guide her to finding them herself (which requires reading)

I don't severely limit digital entertainment (though we don't focus much on tv here), and in fact she's quite the budding gamer chick. It hasn't seemed to diminish her love for, or ability in, reading.

Pics of daughter?