Why we need to encourage children to read and how to motivate them

Some of us have been blest that reading has been built as part of our lives since childhood. I consider it one of my greatest blessings.

Why encourage children to read

Children widen their horizons and perspectives when encouraged to read. Aside from the more clinical reasons that reading improves concentration, develops a child's imagination and exercises the brain, the most practical reason I can think of why children should be encouraged to read is that reading teaches about the world around them. They can be in faraway places that perhaps they may not even have the chance to visit in their lifetime. Also, through reading, children (even us adults) learn about people and events outside experiences.

Ways to motivate and stimulate children to read

1. Visit local library regularly, and other libraries.
2. Visit bookstores.
3. Get your child a journal to record thoughts, and to read them over later.
4. Inculcate in your child the love of classic books.
5. Watch movies of classics.
6. Listen to books on tapes.
7. Subscribe to magazines for children.
8. Read classic books aloud.
9. Act out stories together.
10. Plan or schedule a time for reading.
11. Introduce your children to series books.
12. Teach and help your child to write and illustrate his/her own book.

"Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." - Proverbs 22:6