How do I get my kids to read more books?

Dear Nanay,

I try to raise our children to be readers because I grew up loving books.  So every week I try to bring them to your bookstore and give them the same childhood that I once had.  In the beginning it was working and they grew up loving books.  Every night I would sit with my two children and read to them and that would be our bonding time.

But now they are seven and five years old and it seems like they are not as interested in books anymore.  They are more interested in cartoons and video games and their iPad.  They want to play games instead of reading.  As I watch them play their games I think to myself that I might have gone wrong somewhere.  Why is it that they are suddenly changing from the book-loving kids to video game and iPad addicts who don’t seem to care about anything else?  Every night it is a struggle to get them to go to sleep and put down the iPad because they are playing Angry Birds or Plants versus Zombies!  They can’t get enough of these games!

What am I supposed to do?  I know that as parents we need to try to encourage our children to read and that is what is best for their education and development.  But in this modern world of technology how do we old school middle-aged parents cope in trying to understand something that we barely understand?

Need your help

Dear need your help,

I think you might have come to the wrong person for help on video games and technology.  Mas matanda pa ako sa iyo!  Malamang mas matanda pa ako sa magulang mo!  Wala rin ako naiintindihan diyan sa video games at mga iPad na iyan!  ( I am older than you. Chances are I am even older than your parents. And, I don’t understand anything about video games or the iPad).

Kidding aside.  It is indeed very difficult for those of us from a previous generation to understand what children today are doing.  When I grew up, there were no computers.  Even my grandchildren tell me that they only started using computers in high school.  Now, it seems like from birth our children are plugged into the computers, iPads and video games.  It is a very different world.  Admittedly, a world even I find difficult to understand.

But just one look at the new games that you see children playing with now, and it is not hard to imagine why it is becoming more and more difficult for books to compete.  Reading a book by nature is a very calming and almost peaceful activity. But playing these games, which you pointed out, where exploding birds are thrown in at pigs and household plants eat zombies who want your brains are exciting … action packed … and in many ways far more interesting than reading a book, especially for a child.

So what do we do?

I think you did the right thing by introducing your children to books early on.  They have developed a love for reading already and I have a feeling that it is still in their system somewhere.  You just have to bring it out again. 

One thing you can do is to talk to your children and set a time for everything.  There is a time for video games, there is a time for television and there is a time for reading.  Give each one a daily allocation of say 30 minutes or an hour.  Make the reading portion the last thing that you all can do together at night.  It is probably better for their sleep rather than playing the action-packed video games anyway.  Since games can get them excited and make it harder to sleep afterwards.

So do not give up.  Needless to say, you will encounter some resistance as you start to set some new rules.  But children are actually very flexible and they will adapt to your new rules.  You just have to stick by them and enforce them.  When they get used to their new routine, you will see that they will be perfectly happy dividing their time among all the activities and probably enjoy them all equally.

Sincerely,

Nanay

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If you have a question, email us at asknanay@nationalbookstore.com.ph or just drop your letter at drop boxes in all National Book Store branches nationwide.