A person might ask this question: How can I, at the current ages of my children right now, instill in them a love of reading. Where do I start finding books they will want to read? What if they don’t have any interest in books whatsoever? Is there a way to combat this problem? Let me start by telling you what worked for us.
When my girls were just babies I played CDs in the car. At some point, someone gave me one of the Jim Weiss short stories on CD and we listened to that while driving around doing simple errands and such. Two things happened simultaneously to introduce us to full-blown audiobooks in the car: The first was that someone gifted us with the radio play of Lion, Witch and Wardrobe- which is very well done with sound effects and the right amount of modification from the original chapter book. The other was that I browsed the used/for sale book section at our local library.
As I drove around in my car- my kids (strapped into car seats so they couldn’t get out and change the CD) listened to the radio play of Lion, Witch and Wardrobe by CS Lewis called affectionately, “Narnia” in my household. My then 3-year-old found the movie storybook of Narnia stored away in her closet- I had purchased it at the used/for sale library sale (for about 1$) with a stack of other books (for the future I thought) and put it in her closet for when both girls were older. It was the 3-year-old who loved the vivid pictures in the movie storybook version of Narnia. That, together with the radio play, instilled in them a love of audiobooks. Narnia was our first and accidental love affair with children’s literature.
It may not be that way for you- but its never too late to pop in a CD of an audiobook in the car while your child just happens to be riding with you. Pick one you think they might like- boys might like “Lord of the Rings” while girls might appreciate something more like a fairytale. You never know what might stick in their minds and inspire them to pursue reading on their own.
If you have access to a library, check to see if they sell books donated by the community. Our library has a foundation to collect used books to raise money. When the girls were too young to look for themselves, I selected a wide variety of picture books and purchased them for about 50 cents each. This was a great way to have a variety of books on hand- and test out which were their favorites. I no longer buy these books because I know exactly what type of book each one likes. They each have vast libraries of books in their rooms and I know which ones they gravitate toward. Sometimes it changes and something collecting dust on their shelf becomes a new favorite- but in general, certain books are read and certain books just sit on the shelf.
My goal in this blog is to talk about different books I have picked out and books they have found themselves. During the pandemic we are doing online school which limits their access to hard copy books. The library is also closed for people to browse the used/for sale books. This has inspired me to pay 8$/month for a subscription to a service online called “Epic.” This online library is like an amazon for children’s books- it tracks what they read and what they like. Through this service, my older daughter discovered “Whatever After” by Sarah Mlynowski. In these chapter books, the author takes a classic fairy tale and turns it into a story for older kids. The children in the story effectively “mess up” the classic fairy tale and the ending is different from the expected. These are especially popular for both my girls right now because they are in audiobook format and they listen in the bath tub, while playing with other toys like legos and dolls and include old familiar stories we’ve read as bedtime stories since they were born.
