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BullguerPepper98 t1_jdw81i9 wrote

Man, I have a 11 month daughter and I really want her to like to read as much as me. But people keep telling me that children today don't like books. Your story just gimme hope for the future!

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DuxBellorumUthred OP t1_jdxke3p wrote

Just read to her as often as you can. We have been reading to my son every night and more since the day he was born. We also have made it a point to limit technology and screen time for him. That's not to say he doesn't know his way saround technology, I'm an IT professional, our house if full of Alexa and computers and smart devices, he cracked the passcode on my wife's iPad when he was 4. That said, we never just put him in front of the TV or just handed him a iPad as a digital babysitter. He didn't play his first video game until this year (he is 8) and even then we started with Super Mario Bros on the NES which was my first video game at his age and his game time is limited to 2 hours per week total. When he is bored we usually tell him "OK, you can pick up your playroom or read a book." Guess which one he usually picks. His playroom hasn't been clean in months but at least the mess is contained.

We encourage reading and love buying home books, he always gets new books at Christmas, birthday, Easter and any other day we can find an excuse to buy them and trips to the bookstore are a regular anticipated family event for us. Just foster the love of reading in your daughter, read with her often, keep reading to and with her even after everyone says she should know how to read, ignore the school systems who might tell you they are behind for their age group and let the love and desire to read blossom when they are ready for it but no matter what keep reading with them. Despite his love of reading on his own, some of our most treasured moments are sitting down and reading together.

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BullguerPepper98 t1_jdxsbuv wrote

Thanks for the tip! I try to read for her, but she's just too agitated! I start to read and she just go away, screaming at the cats or something. She don't focus at me, reading and if I try to read with her in my arms, she just want to go to the ground.

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aculady t1_jdz9nnl wrote

She can listen while she moves around at this age. It's fine. Read the book aloud, and eventually, she will start showing an interest in it. You might start out with poetry - the meter and rhyme may make it more appealing. My son loved the poems in "When We Were Very Young" by A.A. Milne when he was an infant and toddler.

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