In today’s world, reading is generally a popular activity for the older generation but, with the younger generation, the number continues to decline. In the U.S. alone last year, those between fifteen and forty-four spent ten minutes or less per day reading, which is an abysmal result considering the amount of good reading does for us.
From improving our general knowledge, providing us with a (free!) form of entertainment, improving sleep quality, and reducing the risk of mental illnesses like anxiety and depression – reading offers us various benefits.
Due to this, parents must ingrain the importance of reading into their children and encourage them to read more. We understand this isn’t as straightforward a mission as we’d like, so we’ve created this article outlining several ways of inspiring your high schooler to read more. Continue reading to find out more:
Fill Your Home With A Variety Of Reading Materials
Teenagers are more likely to develop an interest in reading if they’ve been surrounded by reading materials as they’ve grown up, be it magazines, books, graphic novels, or comic books. Therefore, you’re best to stock the living room, bathroom, bedrooms etc., with reading material geared towards their interests. Ensure this by discovering which books are the most popular in the young-adult section using online and offline lists.
Or approach your child’s mentor, tutor, or teacher, who can give you recommendations from the best books every student should read to the most popular new releases based on several factors. Asking for help is the best way of ensuring that you put the right book in your high schooler’s hands (and for the right reason!), which will make your teen feel more empowered and confident about picking up other reading materials.
Embrace New Technology
It’s no secret that high schoolers love technology so much that it’s rare to find your teen without their phone practically attached to their hand. From being able to keep up with the latest trends at school to staying in contact with friends, there are many reasons why teens lust over the latest gadgets.
If you’d like to minimise the time your high schooler spends on their smartphone, tablet, games console, or iPod, encourage them to spend this time reading. You could achieve this by purchasing them an e-reader like a tablet. Still, instead of its primary usage for searching the internet, playing games, or keeping us connected via social media, it is used solely for reading.
Nowadays, you can find a range of e-readers fit for high schoolers, which can store hundreds of reading materials in various genres. Due to the technological aspect, you may find that your teen is more eager to pick up their e-reader instead of a paper-based book as it is a more attractive format for high schoolers.
Merge Film With Literature
Another way to encourage your high schooler to read more is by merging film with literature. Hundreds of novels get turned into film adaptations each year, with some of the biggest successes being inspired by the young adult genre – take The Fault in Our Stars and The Hunger Games as an example.
Encourage your high schooler to read more by providing them with the print version of the latest releases before taking them to see the movie adaption. Doing so will enable the two of you to discuss the similarities and differences and allow them to pick up on the action that didn’t quite make it to the big screen.