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Originally Posted by nekokami
I read to my younger daughter quite a bit, and she reads a lot now. I didn't get the chance to read to my older daughter much. She came to us when she was 11-12, and I didn't speak (or read) Chinese well enough to read to her for about another year. (I very much doubt anyone in China read to her.) I did read to her for a while, and she enjoyed that, but grew out of it too quickly for it to really take. She's still working on being able to read for pleasure. She sees us doing it (my husband and I are both avid readers), and wants to join in, but is still struggling with being able to read comfortably. I do my part by trying to find books she'll particularly enjoy-- whether or not they would appeal to me.  |
Finding books that will appeal to non-reading kids is always a challenge. A few years back, I was a panelist on an SF convention item intended to be a tribute to the late Octavia Butler (who I knew a bit, from having been involved in arrangement to bring her in as a GoH at that con in an earlier year.)
A woman I spoke to at the con taught English in a community college in a mill town, where her students were non-readers, who read books about the latest sports or entertainment figures if they read anything. For whatever reason, Octavia's books connected with those kids, and they read them deliberately, for fun. (The best guess we could make was that Olivia's works all tended to concern the outsider, and these kids probably saw themselves as outsiders, effectively frozen out of the larger society by their economic and social position.)
You can't predict what will connect.
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Both of my kids did go through a phase of reading to me, which I also encouraged. The research I've reviewed definitely supports the premise that reading with children early on is one of the strongest predictors of later reading enjoyment and academic success (which I interpret here as "comfort with learning," even though I know they aren't quite the same thing.)
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They aren't, but they're related. Academic success requires reading. If you are happy and comfortable doing so, you'll find it much easier than if reading is a chore you do because you must, and you are more likely to do well in your studies.
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Dennis