So you want to get your child to read more but they are glued to the screen? With a little preparation you can use their love of video games to get them reading, too. Try these ideas and find what works for your family.
1. Find the right booksMake the leap from video games to books about video games Look into non-fiction books about gaming or stories based in their game world. A good place to start here is the library as, honestly, books about gaming tend to be fairly trashy and will not stand up to repeated reading. Avoid spending money on them if possible. Worth a look: Guinness Book of Records: Gamer‘s Edition. Also consider magazines dedicated to gaming and different games. These will tap into their love of gaming and get them reading a little bit and often. Read novels about characters who love video games For teenagers there are plenty of video-game novels about talented young gamers pitting their wits against nefarious forces. Two of the best video-game novels are Ready Player One by Ernest Cline and Ender‘s Game by Orson Scott Card, both of which were made into films (but the books are much better) but there are many more video-game novels available. Read (or listen to) some classics Follow the quirky crowd: some older fantasy books have a cult following for good reason. Getting your teenager into Hitchhiker‘s Guide to the Galaxy, Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series or your younger kids into Brian Jacques’ Redwall books will give them lots of material to read. If they are reluctant to try long books, try them as audiobooks. It isn‘t the same as reading but still helps expand vocabulary, gives them a “feel” for language and gets them into the stories. If a video game calls for “grinding” (mindlessly repeating a task to gather a resource) they could have an audiobook on in the background. 2. Consider options that are less daunting than classic chapter books or novelsKids can be intimidated by long books and lots of text. Try a different approach with: Books with puzzles Books that focus on number puzzles to keep the story moving:
Books to get them talking Pick books that start a discussion, such as the “Would you rather?” series (available in different variations). Let them choose their own destiny Some books put the reader in control of the story: these “choose your own adventure” books boomed in the 1980s and 1990s, the best and most well-known were the “Fighting Fantasy” books (ages 10 up) by Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson, which have recently been reissued for a new generation of readers. The reader makes decisions which affect the course of the story and has to “fight” enemies using a dice. This breaks up the reading and keeps interest in the story. Other series include Choose Your Own Adventure which has adventures for kindergarten kids up to teens. Get them to interact Books that combine having the reader make decisions and solve puzzles are loosely called “interactive books” such as Journal 29, Journal 29 Revelation and The Cypher Files by Dimitris Chassapakis. Let the pictures aid the story-telling Comics and graphic novels are easy to get into and often include hundreds of issues so once your child is hooked there is a lot of reading awaiting them. For younger kids, age 6+:
For teens:
Make it easy to get hooked on Try them on trashy fiction (often revolving around vampires, zombies, high school friendships, ghosts, the Star Wars characters) or get them started on meatier books such as The Hunger Games or Harry Potter. Give them some facts Try out some non-fiction from the library and see whether they are excited about epic journeys, space travel, dangerous animals, true crime, and more. A great book for nerds is Randall Monroe’s “What if?” which answers absurd questions in a scientific way and has cute stick men drawings to break up the chapters. 3. Play games and activities (mostly) without a screenBoard games with video-game vibes Check out board games which involve reading the instructions and background story. Good ones to try are the original Catan and its extensions (low to medium amount of reading required) and Dungeons and Dragons (high amount of reading required). Catan is fairly easy to learn from the instructions and the odd YouTube video but Dungeons and Dragons is more involved. It will help if you have an experienced player on hand or use ready-packaged age-appropriate material. More information on starting kids on a DnD journey. Games that put on the pressure “Escape the room” games are typically a good mix of reading clues and cracking riddles. They will get kids thinking and discussing. A good overview of "escape the room" games. 4. Get out into the real world - and read thereGet them running around and reading There are “Escape the room / Exit the room” locations around the world and also companies that offer “solve the mystery” events. Requiring less money but more time and imagination you can make your own mystery trail / treasure hunts, tailored to your children‘s ages and interests (and maybe get their friends involved, too). See online for lots of advice and consider using the Actionbound app (free for non-corporate use) which may even inspire children to create their own. 5. Get them reading on their phonesWinning is a great motivator Quiz apps make a game out of reading and answering questions quickly. Usually you compete against other players which makes it feel more urgent and exciting. Popular quiz apps for iOS and Android are Quiz Duel (also called QuizClash) and Trivia Crack which are suitable for teens and preteens. Get more tips on trivia games for children and other free reading games online at the Educational App Store. 6. Open the door to interactive fictionReading adventures on a white screen Interactive fiction (IF) is a special kind of online reading adventure which, to be honest, takes a bit of getting used to. You are given descriptions of the scenes in words only and move about a virtual world just by typing in commands. Beginners will need some help, which makes Dreamhold a good introduction to the genre for teenagers as it works like a tutorial for the basics. If you want to get younger kids interested, check out these kid-friendly stories. If your kids like the format, there are hundreds of interactive works of fiction which can be accessed directly from these online reading websites: The interactive fiction database The interactive fiction archive (check out the age ratings before reading!) 7. Get them reading in video gamesWhen the story is the centre of the game Not all video games are point-and-shoot or Mario Kart setups. There are many with lots of in-game reading invol ved. See these recommendations for games aimed at teenagers: Video games that are like reading a novel Narrative games for book lovers Video games for readers Browse the Learning works for Kids website for games and apps (both free and paid) for younger kids. Enter “Reading” as the academic skill plus the age range you are looking for. 8. Introduce them to games that need researchFilling a knowledge gap to beat the game Some games are so broad (some might say “complicated”) that extensive out-of-game research on Wikipedia or dedicated game forums is needed to get a competitive advantage or complete the game successfully. This is common in the following game genres:
Don't panic!We would all like our children to be well-rounded people with a number of hobbies and interests. Both sporty and a bookworm, a good conversationalist and a good listener, someone who loves mathematics but also excels at languages, music and science. But life is not like that. Everyone is different and everyone has their strengths and passions. Asking a person to be interested in everything and good at all things is unrealistic. Children and teens are just figuring out what they want to be. If we give them lots of options and let them try things out they can make their choices. Video games and reading can go hand-in-hand but some kids will prefer gaming over reading whatever you do. Let them choose their hobbies and be interested in what interests them. Check out these free reading websites for kids up to age 11 For teenagers: get them reading with this free content
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