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6 Ways to Help Kids Enjoy Books at a Young Age

6 Ways to Help Kids Enjoy Books at a Young Age post image

We’ve heard it again and again that the best gift we can give to our children is the love of reading. But what can parents do to make kids enjoy reading and enjoy books? There are so many ways, and every parent is doing it differently. Here are some we’ve done that worked well for us. I’d love to hear your ideas and the books you used.

How to Help Kids Enjoy Books at a Young Age

how to help kids enjoy books at a young age
Start from a young age: start reading when babies are just born. Some mothers started reading to their little ones even when they were still in mommy’s tummy. Although babies may not understand the words and the meaning, they will gradually get the idea that things on the books are interesting. There are many books designed for babies, like this Baby’s Very First Noisy Nursery Rhymes.
Baby very first noisy nursery rhymes
Role play the Story: many story books have interesting characters. After you read once with the kids, you can assign characters to each person in the family to act out a scene from the book. For young children, pick some scenes with simple lines, such as 1 to 2 sentences for kids’ roles. You do want to make sure to pick the characters and stories that kids like. A good book for this is A Tale of Two Beasts. It tells a story from two characters’ different perspectives, wonderful for kids to act out and to integrate the two sides of the story together.

Use books that enlist all senses: hear the sounds, smell the things mentioned in the books, touch and feel the texture of the objects mentioned in the book, … all these will enhance kids’ understanding of the book and be more interested in learning more. A good example is That’s Not My Puppy. Kids read the book and feel the textures. Any child will love turning the pages to meet a number of different fun-to-touch puppies.

Use books that involve actions: Lift flap books and pop-up books are great at capturing kids’ curiosity and encouraging exploration. Some good examples are Lift the Flap Word Book. Kids will be intrigued to know what is the next word and keep opening up the flaps to learn new words. Other examples are Busy Town and Busy Farm. Every page kids turn will bring up a new part of the town or farm standing up right in front of them.
my farm pop up book
Activity books, such as sticker books, coloring books, are also great choices. Does your child like robots? Try this Build Your Own Robots Sticker Book. Kids will read about different robots, and then build their own with the stickers in the book.

Use book apps with multimedia features, especially non-fiction books: many book apps or online eBooks include multimedia contents, and many even offer free books for kids. With audio, video and interactive features, these books make the reading and learning more fun and easier to understand.

Have books around the house all the time: the more you make the books available and the more the kids see the books, the more they are going to grab them and check them out. Make sure you have books in every room and place the books at the height that kids can see. Where do you get good kids books? Most book stores have kids book sections. Many online books sellers also have kids sections.

If you are looking for books for older kids, here are some good ones Architecture Books Taking Kids Travel the World.
Usborne Book See Inside Famous Palace

{ 30 comments… add one }
  • Fiona N

    My little one loves “If Animals Kissed Good Night”
    Thank You for the chance

  • stephanie girard

    my kids love any book they can get their hands on! from science to farm and everything in between!

  • Debbie Lewis

    My grandchildren love the Berenstein Bears books and I love reading them to them!!

  • Taryn T.

    My youngest loves Guess How Much I love you, and the middle child is really into the Magic Tree House series.

  • Trish

    I loved Madeline as a little girl, and never tired of it!

  • LaLa Bee

    My First 100 Words is my sons favorite right now

  • Tara O.

    My daughter’s favorite book right now is The Pout Pout Fish!

  • Brenda

    My son’s favorite books are Ninja Turtles.

  • Robert Brown

    My youngest loves Goodnight Moon.

  • Leah Shumack

    My daughter and I are just getting into the Harry Potter books!

  • am

    My lil man likes the Diary of a Wimpy kid

  • Sunnie

    My oldest likes the Diary of a Wimpy kid series.

  • Caroline

    My daughters favorite books are all of the Llama llama series.

  • Shannon

    My son loves Goodnight Construction Site

  • Soo

    My sons both love all the Richard Scarry books – I loved those when I was a kid, too.

  • Gaby il.

    Everything mickey mouse and my little pony!

  • Tiffany Church

    My kids love “Goodnight Moon”

  • tracee

    I liked a light in the attic

  • Kristie

    Invited my friend Michelle H. I hope she can make it. Kristie Morrison Donelson.

    kristiedonelson(at)gmail(dot)com Thank you.

  • Kristie

    RSVP’ed to party as Kristie Morrison Donelson. kristiedonelson(at)gmail(dot)com Thank you.

  • Kristie

    My nephew loves the “Lion King” and my brother-in-law loves the “Gruffalo.” It’s his favorite book ever! *grin* kristiedonelson(at)gmail(dot)com Thank you.

  • Kathryn Hyatt

    We love Berenstein Bears books!

  • Ana

    His favorite book right now is Thomas and Friends Look and Find.

  • Tara

    My favorite book as a child was Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and Madeline. I read Madeline so many times I had it memorized; I used to tell people I could read it with my eyes closed!

  • Holly Mitkowski

    Roo’s Messy Room Winnie the Pooh book!

  • Brandy Fisk

    Oh the Places You’ll go!

  • Jennifer Cervantes

    My 4 year olds favorite book right now is Paulette the pinkest puppy in the world.

  • Wehaf

    When I was little I loved the book Noisy Nora!

  • Connie Tillman

    My favorite children s book has and always will be “Oh the places you will go” my kids each have a copy of it. Thanks for the chance.

  • Rmine

    My son’s favorite book is ” Big Mum Plum”, by Daniel Postgate. He absolutely love to have this book read to him as part of our ” Read Time”….and bedtime…..and quiet time…and anytime in the middle!….yes, we read it A LOT!

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