Sneak Reading with Sneaky Readers
One year when I was teaching fifth grade, I had a very interesting group of students (actually, all of my students have been interesting - kids are by their nature interesting!). This group were unusually good at following directions and were extremely eager learners. Nearly all of them played musical instruments and the most notable thing about quite a few of them which makes me smile to this day, was that they LOVED to read, so much so that quite often, I would catch them sneak reading at their desks from their laps when they should have been tuned into the lesson at hand. The book was too irresistible.
Now really, from a teacher’s perspective, it’s difficult to be anything but delightfully amused at catching a child reading when they are meant to be writing or solving a math problem. Our school had a program familiar to many schools called DEAR which was an acronym for DROP EVERYTHING AND READ. It wasn’t meant to be reading-all-day-long but I’m sure some of my students would have gladly had it be EXACTLY that given the choice!
When my son was ten, he was that sneaky reading kid, too, as he worked his way through the Harry Potter series. He was obsessed! It wasn’t uncommon for me to discover him sneak reading in the bathroom, planted on the toilet seat leaning over engrossed in a book as it rested on the floor when he should have been long asleep. Bemusing to say the least!
How do kids get to be prolific readers, readers who just want to get lost in their books or who can’t climb out of them? Reading behavior, as with most behaviors, is learned. There are many ways to influence a child’s interest in reading and here are few to consider:
Create a reading culture from a very early age.
As a parent, be a participant in your child’s reading. You read one chapter to me, I’ll read one chapter to you - a shared experience.
Build a children’s library of books.
Habituate time for reading whether during the day or at bedtime.
Read books that kids love and then talk about them together and as a family.
Model reading by being a parent who reads and expresses a love for books.
Let children choose books that interest them.
Vary genres. Kids magazines have great reading, too!
Read one chapter at a time.
Read to your child until they are excited to know more, then encourage them to continue independently.
Reading must be a zero shame zone. Support slow readers and have capable readers read to you, the parent. Encourage siblings to read to one another.
Ask lots of questions about the book, its characters, setting and plot. Seek their opinions on what they’ve read.
I would be remiss if I didn’t add a caveat here. It can be said that helping children develop a love of reading today is far more challenging than in earlier days when screens were not so ubiquitous. Adults and children alike have become consumed with screens and how could they not be? The immediate engagement and quick response of online fast-paced games, affirming social media and visuals, all instantaneously and proactively draw us away from books which require us to focus our imaginations as we draw pictures in our minds and work through the text to learn more as the story unfolds. Books will surely struggle to hold the allure of the distraction and immediate gratification screens offer so effortlessly.
I urge parents to consider this as they guide their young children’s minds. Delay and limit protracted screen use as long as possible. Let books take your childrens’ minds to wonderful places. It will pay off in the long run. Groom your children to be sneaky readers!