By Lisa Cohn
My 6-year-old, Michael, is planning a “million-star Mother’s Day” for me.
After a quick visit to the library, we’ll be on our way to a gym, taxi, park, museum or bookstore for our favorite activity: Reading together, then filming children’s book reviews by Michael.
His love of books has taught me how to immerse myself in reading and discussion—not just go through the motions of reading with him.
During our YouTube reviews, I play the straight man while he dishes out tips to famous authors and awards million-star ratings. Michael likes to do this at favorite kids’ hangouts or when we’re visiting a state that appears in the book.
It all began two years ago, when our dog, Lucy, died suddenly of cancer. Michael and I wrote two award-winning children’s books together, and began filling our blog with videos of Michael gushing and giggling about children’s books.
Throughout this adventure, I’ve learned a lot about how to read with a child–and how NOT to read to a child, as Michael explains here:
Here are my tips:
–Don’t end your reading experience at the last chapter. Make reading a hands-on adventure. Do YouTube or written book reviews. Learn about the authors’ lives. Contact the authors with questions. We do Skype interviews with children’s book authors.
–Write with your child. I’ve found that writing books with Michael has made him a critical reader. For example, here he critiques books by his favorite (famous) authors: https://youtu.be/p6JjXtd5Xwg
–If you allot a specific time of day to read to your kids, do it with enthusiasm. Too often, parents leave reading until the end of the day, and it feels like a chore. Kids can sense this. And often, the parent falls asleep!
–Encourage your kids to listen to audiobooks—or to create their own, as we have done. Michael loves how actors interpret the characters. He recently cast his friends as voice-over artists in an audiobook of one of our books.
–Join reading groups at your local library, or form reading groups with other families. Michael shares and reads books with two boys who live next door, and the boys do book reviews together.
–Talk about books throughout the day. We chat about kidlit in the car, when we take walks, while we’re at the gym (where Michael likes to review books), while we’re at the park, and while I’m cooking. Integrate reading and discussion into everyday life!
Michael and I are authors of “Bash and Lucy Fetch Confidence,” winner of a Mom’s Choice Silver Award and Finalist, USA Best Book Awards, and “Bash and Lucy Fetch Jealousy,” winner of a Mom’s Choice Silver Award and described by a few bloggers as “a book every child should read.” Learn more about our books at www.BashAndLucy.com.
Let us know if you have any parenting tips to add to this list of suggestions for bonding with kids over books! Email us at BashAndLucy@gmail.com. A be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to follow our book reviews, authors interviews and mom-son writing adventures: https://www.youtube.com/user/BashAndLucy