READING ideas with your child about setting goals. Let them in on the terms. Maybe you both know that, at this point, you will not be finishing a chapter book a week, but they do know that they can handle 10 pages a night. If they can keep that up for a week, let them choose their own reasonable reward. Keep a chart of their progress and put it up for everyone in the house to see. Your child will be proud for meeting their goal and excited about getting a special treat.
USE DIFFERENT KINDS OF READING MATERIAL Reading is reading, no matter what form it comes in. Many parents, even educators, think that books are the be-all and end-all when trying to get an unenthused child to read. “They must learn to love books! Comic books aren’t literature!,” some might say.
But they are. So are magazines. So is the comic strip in the newspaper. So is the back of the cereal box. If your child is showing any interest at all in reading
something other than a book, that is a huge step in the right direction. Comic books and magazines are easier for some children to pick up on their own and you should do everything in your power to encourage that. Sure, it’s not Charles Dickens's classic novel A Tale of Two Cities, but that Batman comic is still teaching your child that reading can be so much more than words on a page. They are learning how to lose themselves in a story and become invested in characters or ideas that were previously unknown to them. Nurture this enthusiasm until it naturally spills over into books and stories.