FAQ
What can I do to give my kid the taste of reading?
1. Make sure the kid does not have a problem such as bad sight, one bad eye (sometimes undiagnosed), poor hearing, ADD, dyslexia or just low self esteem
2. Avoid making of it an obligation: it is a pleasure.
3. Mark on you calendar a weekly day when you yourself will read at night and your kid will notice it. Kids do as you do, not as you say (ever had the problem with "Walk the dog?") If you are a poor reader, get a flower catalog, a home improvement magazine, anything you are interested in, and read it on the day you selected. Your kid will notice, you do not have to say anything. Make a commitment: do this once a week.
4. Find a small book on a subject that your kid is interested in (it could be a bicycle, clocks, antique armors, toys, anything). Alternatively, find a book where a kid can recognize his own feelings. An active child might like a mystery or a sports book, a lonely child might like the Secret Garden or Smilla's Sense of Snow (a great book from Danish writer Peter Hoeg), A kid who secretly dreams of grandeur might like Little Lord Fauntleroy from Frances Hogson Burnett (see also DVD's, the best is still the VHS version with Alec Guiness and Rick Schroeder: it is the most intelligent script from the book and the most interesting English castle). It only takes one book to get hooked.
5. Read aloud to your kid something you really like, a poem, a few sentences of philosophy, anything. Read twenty pages to your kids of a good book, tell them to read twenty more pages and then you will read aloud again.
6. Reduce stupid television. Keep only the channels where your kid can learn something (Discovery, Geography, History, DIY, ...). Stupidity is more dangerous to look at than a nude woman.
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