I have been reading Raising Bookworms, by Emma Walton Hamilton. I bought it because my daughter had started saying things like, “I don’t like reading. It’s boring” (daggers in my heart!). I think the problem was that her reading ability level is somewhere around Green Eggs and Ham and her comprehension level is somewhere around Chronicles of Narnia. About the time the book arrived, I got a notice from school that her teacher felt my daughter was ready to begin the Accelerated Reader (AR) program. Taking a test and getting points made all the difference to my little goal-oriented child. She’s been reading like mad since she took her first test. I even found her reading in bed one night because she couldn’t sleep.
In Raising Bookworms, Ms. Hamilton suggests doing everything you can to associate reading with pleasure – cuddling with your child, giving and receiving books as gifts or letting a child choose a book for him/herself on a spontaneous bookstore visit. One of the kids in my daughter’s class was having a birthday party this afternoon, so I told my husband that instead of going to Target to get a toy that he’d probably play with once, we should go to Blue Willow and get a book. We bought Sandra Boynton’s Dog Train (book & CD) for the gift. My three year-old chose Apples & Oranges: Going Bananas with Pairs (because the cover was red) and my daughter picked What’s Inside? Fascinating Structures from Around the World.