9 Beautiful Ways To Get Your Children Hooked On Books--Readers Are Leaders

Well, the cat's out of the bag--so to speak: We've learned that many top executives of the largest technology companies in the world are not allowing their children to use technology. So there. Case closed. I don't know about you, but this is striking, like a drug dealer selling products that he would never let himself or his children come near. Steve Jobs was one of them. His children didn't know about the second generation iPad when it first came out and people, and their children, were popping their eyes out over it. You see, they know something we don't: that iPad, iPods, and anything resembling them, are highly addictive, impair healthy neuron development, and, when used unchecked, remove users from the real world (yes, tech executives believe in one). 

Kids love the library

What do these powerful and highly 'enlightened' tech executives allow their children to entertain themselves with? You got it--books. Yes, books. The question is, how? How do these people get their children to read books, and shun the temptations of YouTube, Netflix, and iTunes? It's easier than you think.

Reading remains a critical part of learning. I heard one story of a man who holds a Ph.D. in Astronomy, and has written several critical books on the science. He was homeschooled. When asked if his parents were scientists and academics as well, he replied, "Oh no. My parents were hippies--didn't teach me much. They just had lots of books lying around that I sat around all day reading." When your children are turned on to reading, the world opens up to them. They explore more passionately, ask more questions, and align their learning with their experiences in a more passionate way. 

Below are some ways you can turn your kids on to books, and have them reading better than ever. 

J.R.R Tolkien

1. Audiobooks: This may sound technological, and in some ways a good case can be made for it, but it is just such an amazing way to turn kids on to books that it demands mention here. If you have a tv screen in your van or SUV, turn it off, and put on an audiobook--you won't believe the difference. If your children are 6 and up, put on the Chronicles of Narnia or Lord of the Rings. If they're younger, Geronimo Stilton is a favourite among kids, as well as Judy Moody and the spin-off series Stink. By hearing the English language read out loud, they're learning to connect words with images in their imagination, rather than a screen making those images for them. Some audiobooks can be found free from places like OpenCulture. Libraries are also amazing resources of audiobooks. 

2. Move the TV: Most houses have tv(s) in the main rooms, and even in the children's rooms. If you want your kids to turn on to books, move the TVs to less used/less accessible parts of the house. If you have multiple TVs, consider giving them away or selling them. A good place for a TV is in the basement where it's dark and where kids don't really like hanging out. If you have TVs in your children's rooms, seriously consider removing them. 

Readers are leaders...

3. Buy books: Those tech executives who disallow their children from using technology have a lot of books in their houses--and beyond that, there's nothing really available for them to entertain themselves with. If you haven't already, you've got to get books in the house. The library is an amazing place to get books. I know families who go at least once a week, and bring home stacks and stacks of books on every subject imaginable. Thrift stores are amazing places to buy used books and begin a book wall in your home. Do you find your interests are limited? No problem: just buy those books that seem interesting. There are countless lists online for the best children's books. You'll want to find those classic titles like The Black Stallion and Robinson Crusoe and Huckleberry Finn. The more the better. What else will your kids do with all that free time off technology?

4. Leave books lying around: Our kids love books--during the day, they're reading nonstop. It's not uncommon for us to have to take books away at the dinner table. And on car trips--even short ones--books are being hauled into the van by the arm-full. We leave books lying around all over the house, especially picture books--animals, artists, bugs, it doesn't matter; what matters is that they're bold and colourful and pique the kids' interests. The great Canadian author Mordecai Richler used to leave books lying around his house, and even at the bedroom door of his kids' rooms with little notes like "You should look into these..." It's a way of encouraging them to read without shoving it down their throats. 

5. Read to your kids: There's nothing like reading to your children, especially good literature. When they are listening to you, they're listening to language at its best. If you're reading classics like the Chronicles of Narnia or The Hobbit, they're engaging in a magical worlds richer and more complex than they would by watching a movie. This activity will also build a bond between you and your children, for there's something timeless about nestling up with your family over a good story. An added benefit is you'll be stimulated too; your vocabulary will grow too; your desire to read will grow too. 

6. Let them see you read: Your kids will do what you do, not what you tell them to do. If you're telling them to lay off the technology and read more books, but they see you comatose between the covers for hours drooling over Fox News or Top Chef re-runs, that's what they'll do. But if you put hard limits on their technology, and they see you pouring over a 2000 page biography of Winston Churchill or War and Peace, that'll speak volumes! (Pardon the pun.) 

7. Readers are leaders: Have you heard this one? It's true. When you read, your expanding your vocabulary, conceptual awareness, historical consciousness, belief system, imagination; and all these are key to working with and creating with others. 

8. Never use as a punishment: One of the worst things I heard was a parent punishing her child by forcing her to read a book. Brutal. Talk about setting her up for never reading again. If anything, use books as punishment in the opposite way: when your child misbehaves, take their free reading time at night, or take their favourite books away. 

9. Let them read in bed: Some parents only let their kids read for a few minutes in bed before they turn out the lights. For me, if my children are engaged in a good book, I let them read till they're done. I don't put limits on it--I love to see them engaged in a good book. At night, it's not uncommon for me to put on audiobooks while they're getting ready to sleep--they love A.A. Milne's Winnie the Pooh and C.S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia. 

There's just way too much technology around. Take a tech inventory at your home: how many devices do you have, including phones, iPods, and TVs? How many books--actual palpable books--do you have in your home? Do your children have book shelves in their room; and, if so, are they for the books they're digging into or their stuffy collection. Nothing wrong with stuffies--if they're surrounded by good books. 

Give your kids the leg up on their future. Don't worry about tech literacy--one Google executive I read about admitted that his grade 5 daughter had never done a Google search before! They'll pick up technology when they're ready. Get their minds built up by and fuelled with good books. Surround them with books. Get them in your house and in your life--you won't regret it.