Tinkle digest, Chacha Chaudhary, the Secret Seven, the Famous Five, Archies comics and countless other fairy tales and grandma stories. As kids, our lives revolved around these. Even today, some of us try everything we can to get our hands on some of our childhood stories. Books and stories form a rather important and impacting part of one’s childhood. However, today in the 21st century, with the onset of audio books and VR, reading is taking a backseat. How do we make sure our children experience the same joy of stories and reading as we did? Here are some tips to introduce the magical world of reading to our kids:

1. Model parenting Your kids watch and learn. Telling them to read won’t help. When you read in front of them or read with them, that will develop an automatic interest for reading in your child. Enjoy your reading sessions with your child and you can even discuss the different perspectives of the story or ask your child about their opinion.

2. Start with simple and fun reads Begin with small stories and easy-to-read books. Your child should have fun reading for them to continue the process. Pick a small book which won’t take too long to readand will be easy to understand.

3. Explore your child’s interest Pick a different genre each time. Introduce your child to different books like fantasy,fiction, adventure, thrillers, science and technology. Don’t impose a genre on your child. Let them read through every one of them and decide what they like the best.

4. Gift them new book Once your child starts reading, you can gift them books randomly to fuel their habit.Kids have little attention span. They might get bored reading the same book. A new book might be the push they need to finish the previous one as soon as possible.

5. Take your kids to libraries or book cafes. Dedicate some of your family outings to libraries of book cafes. This will make your child comfortable around books. Let them choose books for themselves or just roam around the place filled with books.

Be it hard bound books or ebooks, medium does not matter. What matters is your child is developing a habit of reading.By introducing them to reading, you are gifting your kids an ocean of knowledge which will open up your child’s imagination in ways you cannot comprehend.Also, indulge in some reading yourself, get back the nostalgia and relive your childhood along with your kids.