Is limiting reading a good idea?
We are encouraged to read to our children, and have them read back, as much as is physically possible. The many benefits, to both child, and parent, are so obvious they probably do not need linking to.
But if you do want some science for that argument, you could do a lot worse than start in the National Literacy Trust’s resource section.
As a budding parent, or even as an aspiring one, it just felt important to attempt to encourage any offspring of mine to enjoy reading, right from the very beginning.
When my child was very small, baby to toddlering, we would have the traditional story books, touch and feel types, pop-up classics, sticker books, and some other, perhaps, less traditional reading material.
My little fellow demonstrates that much better in picture, here.
But instilling a love of reading has been very important to me as my son’s parent.
So why would I even think about limiting it?
Well, my argument – which I believe to be especially true when handling boys – is that they will desire something that they get just that little bit too little of, rather than that they get in spades.
It is perhaps a risky strategy, and not for everyone, but at the moment it certainly feels like it is a process that is working.
Bed time is the regular time for us to be reading here, as I am sure it is in other homes, not exclusively confined to this particular time of day, but almost without fail a book of some kind is read shortly before lights out.
However it is the negotiation beforehand that I am going to refer to.
It has been a long time ritual of ours to actually have dialogue about the number of books that are going to be read during bed time. Rewarding an earlier bed time, or excellent behaviour, with a higher number of books. And conversely, not rewarding the opposite.
This is a process I have a lot of fun doing, and aids my boy in all sorts of ways, our cheeky nature means that I always start at one, and he always starts at some ridiculous number, from which playful mediation then occurs.
Compromise is always gained, more often than not at two, but my son would sit and listen until his batteries totally run out.
Which, I believe, in part, is due to the fact that I always aim to read one book too few, rather than one book too many.
This process is definitely a fun one for us, which is what reading should be.
But I would love to hear the argument for limitless reading, and experiences of other parents, or from your own childhood memories.
So, would my approach have worked on you, or is this something that you think will back fire?
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