I was Robin Williams when it came to reading with my daughter. I did a million voices and over the top theatrics. She loved when it was time to read. She's nine now and pretty much mimics what I used to do when she reads by herself. Don't make reading a chore or something that comes with an incentive. As a teacher, I can tell you that it'll come back to bite you down the line. Find something your kids enjoy and find books on it. They make novelizations of a ton of cartoon and movies. There's gotta be something your kid likes.

I think this will teach your kids that reading is a chore and they won't learn to love it.

I'd rather give them 30 minutes a day of TV and subtract if they haven't been reading.

I really wish I had just removed the TVs when my kids were growing up. Both are intellectuals but don't have the book strength to do anything with their brain skills.

Anonymous wrote:My friend did this with iPad time and it’s now gotten so out of control they don’t do anything unless it’s for iPad time. Want them to go swimming? 15mins of iPad time. Want them to go to baseball practice “30 mins of iPad time. It’s gotten to the point they don’t enjoy anything except iPad time, everything else is just a gateway to more iPad time.

THIS. This is generally where these kinds of strategies lead to. Not always, and not always to this degree. But often.

Just cap tv time and put a lower limit on reading time (ex: must read for at least 30min/day). Perhaps they can read to someone to make it more fun, like the family dog.

My friend did this with iPad time and it’s now gotten so out of control they don’t do anything unless it’s for iPad time. Want them to go swimming? 15mins of iPad time. Want them to go to baseball practice “30 mins of iPad time. It’s gotten to the point they don’t enjoy anything except iPad time, everything else is just a gateway to more iPad time.

For kids that hate reading you have to do whatever works. If I told my kid he gets another book for reading 3 he could care less. I don’t know I’m laughing thinking about what he would think about this.

Forcing? l ittle kids to read books? Reward reading with tv time? Tv is fun, books are fun, why don't you provide scheadule that allow both and make both fun and appropriate?

Forcing, makinga chore, Bad...



Encouraging and having fun with a book.... Good..
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Cap the TV and make the books available. I don't require my kids to read X amount of time, because they will literally set a timer and read for exactly 15 minutes (or whatever). When they read when THEY want to, they read for hours. So I buy whatever books they request (they are currently into Harry Potter) and let them lead. Caveat is that they both read above grade level. I might do something different if they were below grade level.

I agree that you should just cap the tv time (in quantity and/or time of day), and make books be a fun thing that you read for themselves.