5 resolutions to guarantee you'll raise a reader -- start with a little pixie dust...

Children browse at a used bookstore in Brattleboro, Vermont

If you’re here, on this portion of Examiner.com, you already know that kids who read have two legs and arm up on everybody else.  What separates kids who read and those who don’t?  In a word, parents.

Sure, a few years ago researchers said peer groups trump parents for influence, but not at the infant-toddler-preschool ages when you need to begin to raise your child as a reader. If you have young children, here are your necessary resolutions in this regard, in order of importance:

#1    Always refer to reading as a treat. Make books and time to read them the treat. Never give a treat for reading.  For instance, say: “If we clean your room quickly, we’ll still have 45 minutes to read!’  Do not say, “If you read a chapter in your Magic Treehouse book, you can have cookies and milk.”

Discourage your child’s teacher and school from giving treats for reading. Explain that to do so gives a child the feeling that reading is a distasteful task for which he needs to be rewarded, something akin to taking out the garbage.  The opposite is true. A world or wonder, excitement, and limitless exploration awaits your child in books. Give the books as awards and gifts dissassociated with tasks. Your time reading aloud to your child should be an every-day staple, but extra time together could be called a treat.

#2    Read to your child every day.  I call it “pixie dust time.”  Remember in Peter Pan, it was Tinker Bell’s pixie dust that allowed the children to fly.  Think of that flying and the experiences they had in Neverland as a metaphor for soaring imaginations.

Yes, it is hard to make a resolution and stick to it, especially one that calls for something to be done every day, but you can sprinkle a little pixie dust in as little as 15 minutes. Schedule it. After awhile, it won’t be possible to sit down to dinner if you don’t read beforehand -- if that is the time you have chosen.  Or, make reading part of your bedtime routine. Whenever you choose, make it a habit. It will become a family tradition that your children will remember all their lives and pass on to their children.  Not only will it help make them become readers, the time shared reading will help bond the family--parents, siblings, grandparents and all. There is the cuddling part, when it comes to little ones. There is the time shared for everyone in an age when time together as a family gets harder to come by.  Reading together also helps create an atmosphere of sharing ideas and critical thinking.  If you can discuss why Marilla treated Anne so coldly in Anne of Green Gables, or how a teenage criminal mastermind started to re-think his past behavior in Artemis Fowl: The Time Paradox, you aren’t far from being able to discuss issues like drugs and sex later.

In any case, aside from keeping your children healthy and safe, reading to your children is the single most important thing you can do for them. You won't regret this resolution.

#3    Make regular trips to the library or a bookstore.  Once a week is a good rule of thumb. Libraries and bookstores are great places to discover books, new and classic.  Obviously, you can get books to read at the library free. But buy as many as you can. A child’s own growing library will be a source of pride, memories, and a place of reference. Add non-fiction to mirror your child's interests. When they're hot on dinosaurs, add books on them.  If its robots or vampires, get those.

Select books for your children and let your children browse and discover titles on their own. Lead them to websites about books and take them to any author appearances and book-related events you can. Trolling used bookstores can be a wonderful way to spend a weekend afternoon. You never know what you might find and the books are usually inexpensive.

#4   Create a special reading nook in your home. This could be no more than a bean bag chair and a lamp. Or it could be a shelf-lined alcove with couch, pillows and lighting. The bay window alcove? If you have a fireplace, that could be an ideal spot. Anywhere you choose, make it as comfortable and well-lit as possible. Turn-off the TV and/or computer if it interferes. 

#5    Make an example of yourself.  You can’t really expect to raise readers if you don’t set an example. Like with everything else, your children will be likely to model your behavior. On those library trips, don’t forget to pick a book for yourself and read it! Join a bookclub. Talk about what you have read with your kids when appropriate. Show them you value books.