Sometimes it’s About the "Packaging"
Now that SM is reading on his own, I have been trying to get him to read more to his little brother. It’s good for him to get the practice and it’s good for the B-Man to see his brother reading (the B-man wants to be just like his big brother).
Lately, SM has not been wanting to read to his little brother or wanting to sit down and read. For whatever reason he’s just not been interested. Maybe it’s all the school work he’s been doing, I don’t know. I’ve tried several ways to engage him but up until this morning, he’s stood firm.
Last night, by accident, I came up with what I am now referring to as a genious idea to get SM, and the B-man, back in the reading game.
So what did I do??? I created….. Reading Parties! That’s right people. Just add the word ‘Party’ behind the word ‘Reading’ and you’ve peaked my children’s interest!
So what is a Reading Party? Why it’s plain ole’ reading… That is all. I just dressed it up a bit. I built the excitement by telling them we’d do it right before nap time and they could not wait.
Around 1 p.m. we gathered up some of our favorite books – each boy selected three – and we headed into the B-man’s room for the ‘Party’. Still in our jammies (don’t judge… it’s Saturday!) we all snuggled up in the B-man’s bed and began reading.
That’s it. It was that simple and it was a huge success. Both boys asked if we could have another party (of course!) and so we will repeat the event again tomorrow.
Sometimes it’s all about how things are presented.
How about you? Any of you have any secrets you’d be willing to share on how you get your children to do things they might not otherwise want to?
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Great idea! I’ll definitely remember that one!
I’ve found adding “Big Girl” to anything makes it more exciting. “Time to use your BIG GIRL hairbrush!” “Lets get in your BIG GIRL seat so we can drive to school!” etc.
Great idea! I use the “party” thing a lot — “we’re having a leave gathering party!” (raking leaves) or “we’ll have a clean up party!” (sadly this one they saw through quickly).
I also use the “big boy” thing for my 3 YO.
It’s getting harder with the 7 YO, I just have to tell him to do it sometimes.
A few summers ago I bribed my daughter with an Ipod Nano. She sold the nano on ebay but she’s never stopped reading since. Not the traditional way to go but whatever works! Wish I’d thought of your idea…
Stella – Yes! The Big Boy comment has worked well with the Bman. He will do just about anything I ask if I include that.
Mimi- We do clean up parties too. Unfort. the boys sing that Barney Clean Up song…. Ugh.
Merlot – I’ve used toys before in desperate situations. I can’t believe she sold it on ebay!lol.
That is great! Jude isn’t much for reading himself, it’s like pulling teeth. Lily is my book hound, even though she doesn’t “read”.
Every night before bed, we all get into mom and dad’s bed and they get to pick out one book each and we read to them. It’s been a tradition since they gave up the bottle. And unless it’s late we do it.
I love that idea! It’s weird becaues I’ve gone to storytime with my children since they were little but we barely read at all this summer. I recently made it part of our bedtime routine–to start getting read 15 minutes earlier so we can snuggle in bed and READ!
Brilliant. I will def. be borrowing this tip!
That’s a great idea! We had a party to kick off party training with our older son. We made a big production of wrapping up his diapers to give to Santa Claus.