10 Tips for making reading fun

My daughter is good at math. Yes, my daughter. "Could we do the math homework first?" she asks. "Really???" I think to myself. Wow. She actually likes math. I am surprised and thrilled that my daughter has not inherited my math intolerance. It's pretty cool to watch the wheels turn as she plows through problems and seems to get a kick out of the challenge.

But, with every favorite subject there is a least favorite. Despite her mommy's love of literature, Lila is her own little person. She is scientific, logical, and mathematically inclined. She is also outgoing, athletic, and sociable. While as a child I could spend hours alone in my room with a good book or my journal, Lila would rather be out and about with friends, playing outdoors and exploring nature, running science experiments (which sometimes require goggles) and being active. To sit and read is just not her first choice and I have to remind myself that she is not my "mini-me." However, I too am up for a challenge! I have tapped into my own solution-finding abilities coupled with a dose of creativity to bring the fun into reading for Lila. I truly think she can discover her own love for reading, but just needs to build the same level of confidence that she has with math.

Here are 10 tips and resources for making reading more fun!

1) Act out stories together. Lila's favorite author right now is Mo Williems. She is particularly fond of his Elephant & Piggie series. When we read the stories together, we act them out as the characters. I am Elephant and she is Piggie. We tend to get really silly with the dialogue by using exaggerated tone, inflection, and facial expressions.

2) Compete to be the Scrabble champion. One of Lila's new games is Scrabble Junior which has been fun to play when we are winding down for the night. Lila just loves beating her mom at board games!

3) Pop for sight words! This is another new game that we like to play. Words are printed on little popcorn-shaped cards. Each player takes a turn picking a piece of popcorn and then reading the word. If you read the word correctly, you keep your piece. It should be played at a fast pace to encourage fluency. But be careful picking too quickly-- if you pick the word "POP" you have to put all your popcorn pieces back in and start over again. Lila thinks it's hilarious when this happens to me.

4) Beat the clock. This was a suggestion from Lila's teacher-- to have Lila read through a list of words using a minute timer. I was reluctant to try it, assuming it would be kind of stressful, but Lila actually thinks it's fun. She tries to see if she could read more words than the last time within the minute.

5) Read with a snap. Another teacher suggestion-- Lila flips through her flash cards while I snap my fingers. With each snap, she says a word. This is to increase reading speed, fluency, and overall confidence. She really gets into a nice rhythm which helps her to stay focused. Perhaps we can dim the lights, wear berets, and pretend to beat poets. {snap. snap. snap.}

6) Design your own flash cards. Lila came up with the idea to create her own flash cards. She had fun illustrating them and labeling them with some of the words she knows. I noticed all of them were food items: apple, tomato, lemon. This inspired our next reading activity...

7) Search for words while shopping. One of Lila's favorite things to do is grocery shopping, especially at Trader Joe's where she can push her own mini-cart. I make a shopping list and Lila has to read the list and then find the items in the store. The reward is a cart full of all her favorite foods!

8) Write your own book. My husband found this activity on Amazon and we've had so much fun with it-- Create Your Own Bitty Books. The kit comes with three mini-books, markers, and stickers. We have created two stories so far: "Our Family" and "Our Favorite Things."

9) Take advantage of technology. When Lila needs some down time, she will usually pull out the I-pad and zone out for a bit. When she's not watching cat videos on YouTube (which she is totally obsessed with), she logs into educational websites like ABCmouse.com. It's brillant because she feels like she is taking a little break, but she is really still learning and reading.

10) Read anything and everything! Lila's Nana, instead of getting her glasses, will say "Lila, can you read this recipe for me?" Her Grandma does the same with the offer of a little incentive-- "If you can read this, you can pick a treat." If Lila wants to learn how to play a game, her dad and I encourage her to read the directions on her own. And, she's gotten hip to us spelling words when we don't want her to know what we're talking about. So, when she gets frustrated with us for doing that, we simply say "Well, guess you better practice your reading and spelling." She crosses her arms letting us know she is up for the challenge. The perfect motivation!

Why I’m Afraid of This Blog and/or Sorry, Did I Offend You?

I like to write. I have kept a journal since I was 11 years old. My first journal was bound by a lovely pink and green floral print cover emblazoned with a heart with my name on it and, most importantly, it had a gold lock. I could always assure that my carefully written thoughts remained private, secure, and protected (or so it felt at the time) by that 10-cent lock.

My lock got so much use, it eventually broke.

When I started reading other people’s blogs a few years ago, I felt like I had found my own tribe. Here were other people writing journal-like entries, sharing personal details of their lives, expressing emotions that resonated with my own. Although I had so much in common with what they wrote, I couldn’t imagine actually sharing these thoughts with the world. What good was my pretty gold lock if I was going to hit “publish” and let anyone who came along just pick up my “journal” and start reading?

My friend, Tara, helped to pry me out of my shell by proposing that three of us write a blog together, sharing the responsibility. Besides my fear of sharing too much, I also had to work through some other baggage to get to the point of writing this blog.

TOP THREE REASONS IT HAS TAKEN ME THIS LONG TO WRITE A BLOG:

Some of my favorite journals

1. The Stalkers, Rapists, and Murderers who are lurking on the Internet waiting for their next prey. These fears were fostered at an early age, pre-Internet, by my mom who warned me not to give any information to strangers. The only way that anyone other than my parents was allowed to talk to me or pick me up from school was if they knew the super-secret password that my mom taught us (the name of our first pet). Do you know that secret password? If not, please stop reading here. :)

2. The Computer Nerds, Scam-artists, and other Tech-savvy ill-doers who might not only read this blog, but might also magically extrapolate my social security number, SAT scores, and personal bank account passwords from my posts. This fear was fostered by my super security-conscious husband who knows quite a bit about computers and is incredibly cautious about the digital footprint that one creates. He is skeptical, but supportive, as I start this endeavor.

3. My Fear of Offending You. My number one fear about writing for a blog is an emotional quirk all of my own creating. I am most worried about offending you. That’s right. I’m worried that your feelings may be hurt or perhaps you might think less of me after reading a post. I am not someone who likes to offend. I try very hard in life to keep the peace, find commonalities, make connections. If I’m talking to you, my lovely organic produce-eating, homemade almond milk-making friend, I might not bring up my love of salt and vinegar potato chips or the occasional bowl of mint oreo ice cream. I steer away from talking about food too much with you; instead, I keep the peace by talking about our shared love of our kids.

My very first journal entry

I once read that we are as many personalities as we have relationships, that what we share about ourselves molds and moves slightly for every single relationship that we have. So, if I have 67 friends, does that mean I have 67 slightly different selves? The idea seems a little extreme, but ultimately it makes a lot of sense to me that I’m perhaps slightly, almost imperceptibly, different in each relationship.

I don’t like to think that I am hiding who I am in certain relationships, but that when I am with you, talking to you, I am bringing up topics that are relevant to both of us. I am reading your emotional cues and responding accordingly with how much and what I share. With this blog, you are sitting at a computer somewhere perhaps very far away and I can’t see if your head is slowly moving up and down in an “Aaahh, yes, I agree with you nod” or if you’re rolling your eyes in annoyance about my latest proud mama moment describing Clara’s accomplishments in way too much detail.

So, ultimately, writing in this blog is taking a risk for me, stepping outside of my comfort zone, and confronting fears (some that go all the way back to childhood. Thanks, Mom!). It’s a step that I’m scared and happy to take. Most of all, I’m glad you’re coming along for the ride. Thanks for reading, and I hope to hear from you along this journey (whether you agree... or disagree) in the comment section.

-Ellyn