Tips to Make Reading Fun for Your Kids

Podcast Transcription 

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Maddy: Welcome everyone to PFCU’s Money Talk Podcast, I’m your host, Maddy. We are diving into part 2 of my interview with Lake Odessa Community Library’s Director, Jennifer Salgat. She is going to share some really great tips on how to get your kids excited about reading, perfect time for March is Reading Month. Here she is!

All right, so switching gears a little bit to March is Reading Month at this point is approaching. And I wanted to just talk about reading and kids. I have a five-year-old and he's like just starting to get into wanting to do like our nightly bedtime stories and we'll actually sit and listen and like work on his letters and all that stuff. So, do you have any advice for parents or just any adult and how to get kids excited about reading because sometimes I think they just, it's hard to get them excited about it.

Jennifer: Yes, especially when it's nice out in the summer and it's light out ‘til 10 and they want to keep playing. They don't want to sit and read. So, I have four adult children. Three of them were avid readers, huge imaginations. I think they were living the books they were reading. Like it was not hard to get them to sit down and read a good book. One of them, and I won't name names, but one of them, he was a great reader, but to get him to sit down and read when there could be fish to catch or basketballs to shoot, so much more caught his attention than reading. So, I understand there's some kids that are just reluctant readers for all different reasons. So, what we've done here is we've focused not necessarily on, especially during our summer program when we have certain goals that we incentivize the children to meet or the readers to meet. Not just about how many pages they've read or how many minutes they've read. It's more about engaging their brain. Because sometimes you will read and you don't realize that you're reading a book. And so, we're fine if you're sitting down eating breakfast and you want to read the back of a cereal box or.

Maddy: Oh, yeah.

Jennifer: Different ways that you're engaging your brain, not just reading words on a page. So, if it turns into like with a lot of rules and restrictions that of course it's not fun for the kids. So, we don't reward that in the summer. It's all about brain engagement. So, like I said, you can play the piano, you can learn a new language, you can eat with your non-dominant hand. There’re so many ways to keep your brain active that I think helps. We also now have a big selection of graphic novels, which we used to call them cartoons or comics, but now they're graphic novels. And we have found that there's a lot of kids that get very intimidated by a whole page of text. And so graphic novels, even through the adult sections, it's just colorful and it catches their attention and they're more apt to read. Now I get too distracted.

Maddy: Yeah. It's bouncing all over.

Jennifer: Yes. I don't know how to read a graphic novel, but I know that that's a big thing and there's more and more, there are more and more books that are being published in that graphic novel format because there is a need for them and kids are reading. As far as a five-year-old, when they're just beginning, you definitely have to find books that catch their attention. So, we have books that I think are really gross. Like books about snakes and maybe some bathroom humor jokes.

Maddy: But that a five-year-old boy would absolutely love.

Jennifer: Absolutely. I don't know if I can say the word butt on this podcast, but we have one book called Butt or Face. And all it shows, and your five-year-old would love it, is an animal and you don't know if it's the front side or the back side. And I think anytime you get them so engaged that they can't wait to turn the page, that they're going to finish those books. So definitely finding out what catches their interest and their attention.

Maddy: Yeah, that's good advice. I will take that advice.

Jennifer: I think that was our first challenged book was this book. Yeah. Butt or Face.

Maddy: Yeah, so funny.

Jennifer: I've also found when you are doing something you enjoy, you're reading more than you realize. And so, for instance, in the summer, this will be our third year that we have sewing classes. And this is kind of my baby, my project. And I have very simple sewing projects that kids or adults can complete in a 30- or 45-minute session. And we had 60 people sign up the first year, and I had to limit because I can't, I can't have that many sewing sessions. I printed out the instructions for these sewing projects and people, they're reading without realizing it. And it's actually mathematical. They're learning like measurements and stuff like that. So, I think just catching someone's attention and making it exciting helps.

Maddy: Right. It doesn't need to be sitting down reading a long chapter book by me.

Jennifer: Exactly.

Maddy: I love that. All right, well, that was the last question I had for you, Jennifer. Thank you so much.

Jennifer: Thank you for speaking with me.

Maddy: Of course.

Jennifer: I'm going to go home and think of all the things I should have said.

Maddy: That you should have said.

Jennifer: Because I love my library. I love everything we do. I live in a small town that we are the community center. We have so many things that happen here at the library that kind of spread out to the rest of the community.

Maddy: Yeah, well, I can feel that passion from you. So, it was great to talk to you. I really appreciate it. And if we need to do a part two…

Jennifer: I would love to

Maddy: We can do a part two.

Jennifer: Well, thank you so much.

Maddy: Thank you.

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