The first steps to instill a love and respect for books and reading is to read to your child and let them see you read for enjoyment. Make sure you have a good supply of used children’s books in your home library to accomplish this goal.
A few hints that might make nap time and bedtime a perfect time to help your child develop a love for books while easing them into a peaceful bedtime routine.
For the toddler, reading before settling them down for a nap or bedtime is an important first step, as reading calms a child down and helps them relax so sleep comes naturally. Cloth books can be used as an aid to help them get back to sleep or entertain themselves in bed if they awaken early. Even the youngest child should have a set of bookshelves stocked with used children’s books so they know from the beginning that books are part of their world.
For the preschool age child, setting aside a special time for reading is a good way to establish a lifelong love of books. Buying used children’s books can keep your child supplied with an interesting library. For very young children who fight an afternoon nap, calling it an “AFTERNOON READ” might be the solution. Allow your child to choose several books from his personal library to read in bed and encourage him to rest rather than sleep. Setting a special timer for the amount of time your child GETS to read in their bed takes the emphasis off sleeping and makes nap time fun. If you want to take this a step further, reward him with a special outing or allow him to choose more books from his library stocked with used children’s books.
For beginning and established readers, a special reading time, after they are all ready for bed and in their room for the night, might alleviate that night time struggle to get your child to go to bed willingly. This would be called BONUS READING time after their regular bedtime. The child will be thrilled to be staying up past their bedtime and you will be thrilled that there was no struggle getting them in their bed!
This is the time to stock up on great used children’s books for summer reading. Buying books on eBay is an inexpensive way to accomplish this task. If your child has a favorite series, such as, Junie B. Jones, Geronimo Stilton, or Magic Tree House, start searching for those books now so you will have complete sets for your child to read this summer. A simple way to accomplish this is to find sellers on eBay who are offering books from the sets you want to buy. There might be a seller offering 10 books and another seller offering 5 or 10 or 15 books from the same series. Eventually you will have a complete set. Sometimes a seller will offer a complete 28 book series of Magic Tree House books so you would only have to make one purchase. A complete set of Magic Tree House books bought new at retail prices would be quite costly, but buying used books on eBay would be a small fraction of that cost. There are many great children’s books available. Children outgrow books rapidly and move on to higher reading levels so buying used childrens books will allow a greater variety of books in your child’s collection. The same holds true for toddler board books and cloth books and preschool picture books.
Instill a life long love for learning and educaion with books. Keep your child’s private home library stocked with age appropriate used children’s books.