How to Motivate Your Child to Read

Image taken from http://n8tip.com/been-meaning-to-catch-up-on-reading-heres-how

The ability to read was, for many years (centuries???), withheld from the common citizen. Free access to information was something our ancestors had to fight for for a long time. It is thus a legacy we have to be thankful for and should try and make the most of it.
Instilling our children into reading is one of the best ways to continue with this legacy and to provide them with one of the best tools there is to succeed in life – being self-sufficient, which is something you can get from books.
Not only that, but also the possibility of hours and hours of fun reading comics, novels, sci-fi, etc.

However, as we all know, it isn’t always easy to motivate children to read.
Here are a few guidelines based on the recommendations of the America Reads Challenge (Europe may have a somewhat different reality, but these guidelines might still prove useful)

1 – Talk with your child about what you are reading: Share interesting newspaper and magazine articles, point out beautiful words from books and introduce new vocabulary;
2 – Provide a good selection of books for your child so that he or she can always find one of interest;
3 – Have your child pick out books in addition to the ones you choose;
4 – Discuss the books with your child as he or she reads them. Ask questions about themes, characters and how the story might relate to real life;
5 – Help your child build confidence by allowing him or her to reread a book several times;
6 – Reward your child for reading new books.

I would add a 7th step that I think is quite important – give the example; if your child knows that you have the habit of reading, he or she will get curious about it.

You can check this and other useufl articles at http://www.ehow.com/how_1931_motivate-child-read.html