Reading with kids. It can either be incredibly rewarding or send you running to an insane asylum! There’s no in-between. And that’s with kids who actually ENJOY reading. What do you do if you have a reluctant reader?

Well, I have two top tips for encouraging your reluctant reader to love books:

1. Keep it fun
2. Give them as much freedom and choice as possible

You can easily achieve these two points if you follow the Our Daily Wonders Reading Challenge! Scroll down to find out how to get involved and to download the FREE printable!

Turn your reluctant reader into a bookworm

I like to think everyone loves reading; they just need to find the right book. Everyone would love to believe otherwise, but it just doesn’t work that way. Everyone has to find what they enjoy. Some readers are fortunate to like a huge variety of things, but other readers need something specific.

Take my awesome mother, for example. She always said, “I’m just not a reader. I don’t even like reading the school letters!”

But then something incredible happened – she found her interest. When researching about Islam, she read nearly every book she could get her hands on. She found her specific love of reading.

How the ODW Reading Challenge can help

This challenge is designed to make reading a fun and exciting activity for you both to enjoy together. By selecting a different book with each challenge, your child will have read 20 books by the end of it!

You child will get a chance to try a variety of different books and different topics which will hopefully help them to find their favourite type of book.

Giving children freedom and independence to navigate the many books around them is a wonderful way to take the pressure off reading time and put the power in their hands. As we know, kids love to be in charge!

How to use the Reading Challenge

You can use a different book for each challenge and either tick it off or add a sticker after your child completes it.

Keep your child motivated by promising them a prize at the end of the challenge. This can be a physical present (like picking their favourite book from a bookstore) or an experience (camping in the garden, anyone??)

Be flexible with the challenges – you don’t have to complete them in order! Do whichever one is easiest for you or even change the challenge completely if you can’t find a book to fit the challenge for that day.

The aim is 20 books. This challenge is just to help your child along the way.

Where to find books?

You might not have a book in the house to fit every challenge, or you might just fancy a change. It’s a little tricky to get out at the moment and libraries are closed in most places, so try these links to get your hands on some amazing eBooks:

• Twinkl Originals (you may need an account, but Twinkl are currently running a free code whilst schools are closed!)
• Amazon Free eBooks for Kindle (Even if you don’t have a Kindle device, you can download the app to your phone of tablet.)
• OxfordOwl (Some children will recognise these books from their school library!)

Download your Reading Challenge printable

Let’s do this together!

on April 13th, 2020, I’ll be doing the reading challenge with my kids! Join in and we can do it together! Tag Our Daily Wonders on Instagram or Facebook and use the hashtag #ODWReadingChallenge

I can’t wait to see how you all get on!