How do you go about getting children to love reading? What worked for you?

How do you go about getting children to love reading? What worked for you?

Punitive rape

There's a wealth of literature for young people. The most obvious thing is to start with that. Your Harry Potter, Goosebumps, Animorphs, what-have-you.

If they're older, start them on something more mature but don't push anything beyond their level on them too quickly. Remember that a lot of kids are operating at a very low reading level , especially if no attention has been paid to them learning to read before.

Basically, start with training wheels first and make sure they have fun. Then you can start showing them more advanced stuff, which they should naturally hunger for.

Rape

I worry about Harry Potter just because of the 2 young girls in my wider family who read Harry Potter, it only resulted in them loving Harry Potter and it actually became less likely for them to read anything else. One of them is close to what i would categorise as 'dangerously obsessed'.

Read a lot yourself in the home and have books available for the child. Monkey see monkey do.

Who is the author

Read to them every night from birth. Start teaching them to read one year before kindergarten and buy them books that interest them, as a boy Tolkien and anything relating to World War 2 caught my interest. As soon as they can read at a low level, bring them to a large book store and have them sample different books. It worked for me and my family, who all scored extremely highly in reading comprehension, it may be anecdotal but I sincerely doubt it.

Show them Drumpf and tell them they'll end up like that if they don't read senpai lol

Nice digletts, my man

Basically this. The younger they are will want to just imitate everything you do. If they see you holding showing a book, they will catch some interest and curiosity on what you are holding. Also read out loud when they are around or just read him/her when they are not distracted. Also as a first read for a kid, you have to show him something visual as long what they are reading so they can comprehend better the context (Le petit principe, for example), have patient and sit next to them. Then you can introduce him to some methology and then probably he will search by himself.

Discipline and an Iron hand.

Not even joking. That's how my mother got me to read. Everyday after school I had 2 hours of piano practice. My mother came home from work and then sat behind me near the window chain smoking cigarettes and making sure I played and corrected me.

Then was dinner, homework and at night she would tell me to read for 2 hours out loud so she knew I was reading.

After a few months she just started buying me books at my request.

She kept up with the piano scrutiny though.

This. Read to them, and then they will want to read on their own, too.

When I was a kid, my parents would take my siblings and I to the library every weekend during the summer.

This is a nice fantasy. Can you develop it into something lewd?

And do you really enjoy reading?

That sounds fucking miserable for both parties.

I'm just Eastern European aristocratic blood dude.

That's how she was raised, and so was I. Late into high-school I went a bit rebellious. Started doing some dumb shit, but now that I'm older I find myself adhering to the types of behavior my grandmother and mother instilled in me. They were some powerful fucking lords and what not before communism and revolution destroyed shit.

I love it. It sucked at first sure. Being a kid and being forced to behave like that. But looking back it was a short bit of tough love that translated into success later on in life.

Of course. Discipline blows man

Also, if you already have tried hard with them and you see they seem not really into it, do not force them. They will find something better to spend their time.

I want to add, you can't go have assed into it. If you do you just end up making a kid hate it and hate you.

You have to commit to the role of fucking getting shit done that way. It was easy for my mother given her background.

A few will, most won't. Those who do will probably pick it up on their own.

Make them read Vonnegut.

This only seems to happen with girls.

Substitute Series of Unfortunate Events with Harry Potter.

Harry Potter is pure escapism; A Series of Unfortunate Events can better lead to real lit, IMO, since it's a bit more....literary: flashier prose, more balanced characters, shows how life can kind of suck, etc.

I was a bigger fan of Unfortunate Events, and I think that led to my desire to read more "serious" lit versus speculative fiction.

Be generally absent from their lives except for at dinner, with your partner doing the same. Live somewhere isolated with no other children to play with. Don't allow them general access to TV or computers until they hit puberty. Ensure your house is stocked with lots of books including those on taboo subjects; not in plain sight but not well hidden either.

all men

i feel like you're going to turn half your kids into bookworms but the other half are going to break their necks trying to climb shit out of boredom. maybe add a little malnutrition to the mix so they don't have the energy to do anything stupid. or even better, fatten them up with candy so they will have no energy AND will be socially stigmatized if they do come in contact with other kids.

*substitute ... for ....

I always get that preposition mixed up.

Important is to not force them. Give them a lot of options to read, but don't make them feel like they have to, or they'll resent it. Read a lot around your kid, and show them that you're enjoying it. Leave all kinds of books around where they can get to them. Their natural curiosity will drive them to start flipping through them, and eventually they'll find something they like. If you have to, implement a tv and internet curfew, say, after seven o'clock you turn off all electronics. DO NOT call it reading time, or imply it's so they'll read more.

you can use with just as well.

mythology books with beautiful art

hmmmm... when I was a kid I was more interested in history than fiction. Read a lot about the second world war - my childhood heroes were generals and tank commanders. The first fiction book that really got its hooks in me was a historical novel about a 17 year old Waffen SS soldier in the battle of the bulge. The book is called "Night Over Day Over Night." For 12 year old me it hit the sweet spot of subject interest, accessibility and aesthetic power - it gave texture to my WW2 themed daydreams and helped me outgrow them. Certainly a much better book and reading experience than what passes for "Young Adult" fiction in the mainstream. I read all the harry potter books but got more out of that one novel than all HP put together.

read around them, have a shelf on display. let them ask questions and be ambiguous with your answers.
>read and find out
dont tell them its good to read. they wont do it then.