How to bond with your kids over books
2 min read
The Green Parent –
Happy father and son reading book together in bed
Like many parents, I love, love, love reading to and with my kids. But I will also be the first to confess that sometimes, life just gets in the way of reading time. That’s because more often than not, we save our family reading time for the end of the day when we are all tired and ready to crash.
Lisa Cohn and her six-year old son Michael, are pros at the family reading scene. The two have written two books together (Bash and Lucy Fetch Confidence (Volume 1)
Here are Cohn’s tips on helping other parents bond with their kids over books.
- Don’t end your reading experience at the last chapter. Make reading a hands-on adventure. Do YouTube or written book reviews. Learn about the authors’ lives. Contact the authors with questions. We do Skype interviews with children’s book authors.
- Write with your child. I’ve found that writing books with Michael has made him a critical reader.
- If you allot a specific time of day to read to your kids, do it with enthusiasm. Too often, parents leave reading until the end of the day, and it feels like a chore. Kids can sense this. [Guilty as charged!]
- Encourage your kids to listen to audiobooks—or to create their own, as we have done. Michael loves how actors interpret the characters. He recently cast his friends as voice-over artists in an audiobook of one of our books.
- Join reading groups at the local library or create your own reading group. Michael reads and shares books with two boys who live next door, and they also do YouTube book reviews together.
Do you have any tips to share?
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