Photo by Patricia Prudente on Unsplash
There are a lot of achievements worth celebrating as a parent, and reading is one of them. It’s frustrating when the pressure comes from other parents, teachers, daycare staff, or others telling you that your kid should be reading at this point, or something’s wrong with them. Insert mandatory disclaimer here, I’m by no means an educational expert, or child educator, or really, an expert in anything. But I do know there are some weird tricks involving technology that helped my oldest two read, and I swear by it.
#1 Video Games
That’s right, I said it. Video games helped my kids read, and was probably the number one factor besides school that helped them get there. I’m serious. Don’t believe me? If your child is as interested in games as mine are, you’ll find it annoying having to read to them every prompt that appears on the screen. So eventually I said, “Nah, you read it”. They got frustrated at first because they were coming to me to help them navigate Mario, but me telling them every time what Mario needed to do just hindered their ambition to want to learn.
So eventually every time they came to me, I told them to try their best at reading. Eventually, they gave up asking me and it encouraged them to use what they were learning in school and apply it to their games. You’d be surprised how fast they pick up on things when they are eager to know what things say instead of smashing the ‘a button’.
There are even some websites your teachers might be using already, such as Starfall or, Khan Academy for Kids.
#2 Read With Them
Ya ya, you’ve heard it before. Reading to your kids every night is what every model parent should do. Been there done that. Turns out – not everyone is an amazing parent like the ones you hear about in every book ever. I read to them maybe once or twice a month, I know shame on me. But between Soccer, dance, school, the wife, the dog, the house, work and everything in between. Most days by 9 pm I would be literally collapsing on the bed from exhaustion. Turns out that’s normal, don’t feel too bad.
But when I did find time to read them (or should I say when my daughter forced me), I found it incredibly rewarding not only to find that individual, one-on-one time if you have multiple kids but also finding out what sorts of things they are interested in and wanted to read about.
#3 Challenge Them
All it would take to get my son to read would be to tell him that his sister was a better reader than him. Easy – he would take out 47 books from the library and crush them before dinner. There was no stopping the kid, but he’s been that way for a long time now. No way can someone be better than him in life, nope, not on his watch.
If your child isn’t as competitive as that though, make it a simple, but fun way to challenge or reward them. After 10 books you get to take the family for ice cream and actually follow through with the reward. Or if your kids are into stocks like mine, I would tell them to read a certain number of books and I’d buy them a few shares of a company to add to their portfolio.
These are just a few ways that I’ve found that using technology, or psychology incentivized them beyond their typical homework. Will they work for you? Any other ways you’d recommend? Comment below!
