Beedle the Bard by the Bedside: Tips for Encouraging your Children to Read at Home
1. Find out what your kids enjoy reading and provide those reading materials. Display the materials visibly throughout the house (book basket in the family room, magazine rack in the bathroom, bookcase in the bedroom, recipe books in the kitchen, etc.). Provide reading materials inexpensively by checking the materials out from libraries. If your children aren’t likely to seek out reading materials for themselves, bring the reading materials to them.
2. If you don’t know what they enjoy reading, try a variety of materials. Ask teachers and librarians for recommended reading lists, specific to your child’s interests and needs. Try to choose materials that are at a reading level that’s comfortable for them. If your child is particularly eager to read a text, let him/her, even if it’s challenging. Don’t forget the following:
o Magazines and newspapers
o Comic books (including those online), graphic novels, and romance novels
o Materials related to their hobbies and interests, even recipes and instruction manuals
o Materials recommended for their age group or popular to their peers
o Materials that make them laugh
o Online blogs, social networking sites, e-mail, websites, and other web sources.
3. Provide quiet times in the home, during which reading is possible.
4. Model reading at home. Show your children that reading can enrich their lives. Read things that you are genuinely interested in and share tidbits with them. If possible, start this from an early age. Explain to your young children, “Now you’re old enough to read before you go to sleep, just like Mom and Dad.”
5. Read with your children. Read aloud to them. Show your children that you value these times.
6. Show your children how to find safe, reliable information. (Use online databases, e.g. Teen Health & Wellness, and published books and articles in libraries and book stores. Explain to them that the information on Wikipedia or random Google sites is not guaranteed to be reliable.
7. Guide your children in their homework for school.
- Show
them how to use online databases at
- Encourage them to contact their teachers via e-mail through matherhs.org.
- Check your children’s grades using the Gradebook Parent Portal.
- Find out about upcoming projects and tests and help your children prepare for them.