How to Convert Your Reluctant Reader to an Enthusiastic Reader

School is almost over! Hurray! Summer is about to start. Both of my kids (and especially Katie) are looking forward to Summer. Katie doesn’t have to go to school, and she would be spending time with me. For some reason, she prefers to stay with me over going to school and being with the other kids. She said it’s more fun to be with her mommy and her little sister. This is her first year of formal schooling, so I don’t know how long she’ll feel that way. When I was a kid, I always looked forward to summer as well because I got to play more. However, the excitement usually lasted about two weeks and then I got bored. I was excited to go back to school again. I had too much free time. Watching TV several hours a day became boring after a while. The only books I had at home during my kindergarten to 4th grade were textbooks. Some of them were good, like my reading textbook and the Filipino textbook, because they had lots of interesting stories. But I had already read them so I wasn’t interesting in reading them again. That is why I made sure that Katie and Jessica would have access to books that are interesting. I want to encourage my kids to read. In order to achieve that, I try to look for books that are interesting to them. However, given that the children’s books only take a few minutes to read but a lot of time to find the interesting ones, I am quite grateful to God for helping me find a great reading list. Katie already started reading the books from the Mensa for Kids – Excellence in Reading K-3 list. Most of the books that Katie read from that list are quite interesting – which does not surprise me, as the books from the list are mostly classics and books that have won multiple awards. What I have noticed is that if I put good books on the coffee table where the kids can easily see them, they will often come ask me to read to them or they will pick it up to read it themselves (in Jessica’s case, “reading” is looking at pictures).

So, if you want to get your reluctant reader be interested in reading, check out the list of books from the Mensa for Kids – Excellence in Reading below and ask the kids to pick out the books they want to read themselves.

PICTURE BOOKS