Reading can be one of the great joys in life. For some people and especially children though, it can be a bit of a chore. This can be for all manner of reasons, but there is hope! We have some great ways to make reading more fun and get their little minds engaged.
Why is Reading Good for My Child?
Reading is not just a fundamental part of a child’s education, it has a multitude of benefits as they grow.
- In early years it helps develop speech
- Pattern recognition
- Imagination
- Problem solving
- Independant thinking
- Educational
- Mindfulness
- Fun
- Supporting cognitive development
- Reading with your child improves the bond you have
- Learning new undiscovered words
- Improves concentration and focus
- Fosters the love of reading the more you do
- Can encourage creativity
There is so much more to add to the list, the benefits are wide and varied. Most of all reading can be extremely fun and give children a glimpse into world they may have never dreamed of. Or indeed ones they’ve wished to see. They can have adventures that blow their minds, learn new things to love and share, find ways to understand the world around them.
Whatever their age, children can make use of reading for more than just school requirements. Aside from fiction books, there are millions out there about every subject you can imagine and more. You don’t even need to buy the books, just pop along to your local library and get them a library card. Libraries also have fun activities and guests regularly, to help little ones feel more encouraged to delve into a book.
How to Make Reading More Fun?
First of all and most importantly, read with your child. Put on the silly voices and whisper at the spooky bits, use your hands and show emotion, pull them into the story, even if you’ve read it 100 times!
Make reading fun by adding a star to their reward chart each day for reading, or giving them a treat when they learn a new word. Join the library and take part in the activities they run, particularly in the holidays.
Think about their favourite author, can they read all of their books? Task them with a topic each week, such as animals and say they should find books with lions and tigers and bear (oh my) in. Or if they read about aliens, could they design their own alien, what colour would it be? How would it travel to earth?
Using your imagination is key and honestly children will be excited to meet your challenge, no matter what it is!
The Around the World in Ten Books
We wanted to give you a helping hand though, with The Around the World in Ten Books Challenge. We even have a free download for you to print out and use, or you could make your own.
The challenge is simple, the children need to collect ten stamps in their passport from around the world. These can’t just be any books, where is the fun in that? Oh no, they must find a book that matches the subject on one of our covers dotted around the treasure map. So, if they choose ‘animals’ their book needs to feature animals as the main topic. This could be the characters, set on a farm or a book about visiting the zoo. We can think of a few!
Once they have collected all ten stamps, not only will they have explored ten different worlds and been on ten exciting adventures, the will receive the key to unlock the treasure chest!
Now the treasure chest contents are entirely up to you. They could be rewarded with a new book or book voucher. Perhaps a sweet treat could be in order, or a fun trip to the library. Whatever you decide to ‘put in’ the treasure chest, it gives those eager young minds a goal to work towards.
You can download The Around the World in Ten Books Challenge sheet here, or on our Free Resources Page. Feel free to print it out and share this article with anyone you think has children that would enjoy taking part.
Don’t forget to let us know what your child thinks of the challenge and how they got on over on TikTok, Instagram, Threads, Facebook and Twitter. We can’t wait to hear all about their travels!
