Make your child fall in love with books

For a healthy learning attitude, it is important to develop the habit of reading at an early age. In this situation, parents play a very important role. Only they can teach their child how to read in creative ways. This would also help to enhance creativity and imagination of kids. Parents share some tips with DNA.

Since childhood, we have encouraged our kid to read
My son who is currently in standard VIII loves sports. Since his childhood, we have encouraged him to read everything related to the subject. He opens up the newspaper just to read the sports section. He is also interested in general knowledge. So, he refers to the encyclopedia quite often. If I find an interesting article in the newspaper, I tell him to read it as well. His general knowledge has become strong now. He also reads fiction books like Famous Five. The library facility in his school is good, so he reads quite a bit himself. My younger child has just learnt how to read. I have been reading her bedtime stories for a couple of years now. Now she tries to read the stories, which I used to read to her.
—Neha Ambekar, homemaker

We tell our kids to read books of specific authors chosen by us
We had to do nothing to cultivate reading habits in our children. The thing that motivated them to read was see us reading books. Both my wife and I enjoy reading books immensely. When my children were small, we would read to them. Then they picked up on reading themselves. My children and I also discuss the characters in the book and whatever they read about. We also select an author and tell them to read every book they find written by that writer from the school library. My son loves reading science fiction and murder mysteries. My daughter’s favourite authors are John Grisham and Robin Cook. The only thing I wish they would read is vernacular books.
—Saumil Saheba, chartered accountant

Both my children are good at creative writing
My elder son, who is 14 years old, reads a lot. He has been into reading since he was in senior KG. That point of time, he loved books with pictures. Now, he has read the Harry Potter series followed by the Twilight series. On the other hand, my younger son does not enjoy reading as much. When he was younger, he would just read Adventures of Captain Underpants. Later, I understood that he enjoys books from the genre of comedy. To get him into the habit of reading non-fiction, I found a book that gives a biography of all the famous personalities in a comic manner. Because it was funny, he read it easily. What surprises me more is that both my children are good at creative writing. In fact, the younger one was asked to write an article for a newspaper. It was the most comical thing I have ever read.
—Preeti Baney, stylist and designer

My son does not like books without pictures
My son is in standard I right now, so he has just started reading. Initially, I used to read out children’s books to him, so he developed an interest in reading books. Just this year, he has started picking up books. He can relate to a story better, if there are pictures, so we buy him books with attractive pictures and bold fonts. Recently, we gave him Panchatantra to read. Even for his birthday, we gifted him books. He loves reading about snakes and other reptiles, as well as Batman and Spiderman and the likes. What it boils down to is the pictures. As long as there are interesting pictures, he will read anything.
—Reenu Pranav, homemaker

My son has developed an interest in Indian mythology
My elder son is in standard III right now. We used to read different kinds of books to him. After reading one or two books on Indian mythology, he has developed an interest in that genre. So, we recently bought Amar Chitra Katha for him. It has a lot of pictures and due to that he enjoys reading even more. Another thing that we have told him to do is read anything for 15 to 20 minutes before sleeping. So now he has gotten into that habit. We also buy different kinds of books for him. Right now the most popular book in his age group is Diary of a Whimpy Kid and he loves reading it. He also carries a book and reads it while travelling in school bus.
My younger son is in the process of learning how to read. We read to him every day and tell him to read a few words in a sentence. He enjoys hearing us read a lot.
—Ajit Bhave, entrepreneur

As parents, it is important that we never say no to books
My elder son, who is 12 years old, is a voracious reader by nature and he loves non-fiction. When he was younger, my wife and I assessed his interests and it turned out that he was interested in geography and animals. On the basis of that, we bought him books. The younger one, who is 7 years old, is a little impatient so he likes reading facts. He loves reading about unusual things so we bought him yearly books like Guinness Book of World Records.

He has become very precise with his facts because of that. As the younger one has more time on his hands, we gave him a home project on continents of the world.

As parents, it is important that we never say no to books. Another thing that we do from time to time is read out a story to them and ask them to narrate it back. On the basis of that story, we ask them to design a game.
—Atul Bakliwal, IT professional