I was almost a world authority on Pre-Industrial era stamps. I could see it all, stretching out before me. I would do the lecture circuit, travelling to Monaco and Paris, dining with other stamp greats in the Bahamas, sipping cocktails and waxing forth on English postal reform and the advent of the printing press. I would go to stamp exhibitions and expos and as I entered the room — my t-shirt reading Ask Me About Stamps — people would pause and stare. I can almost hear the whispered conversations:
“See that?” one guy would whisper to his counterpart. “That’s Adrian.”
“THE Adrian?” the other would whisper, wide-eyed and agog. “The world-renowned expert on Pre-Industrial Stamps?”
“The very one.”
And when I think back on the glory days I missed on the international postage stamp circuit, I know that there is really only one thing that held me back. It was a complete and utter lack of interest in either 1) stamps in general or 2) Pre-Industrial stamps specifically.
I actually had to look up Pre-Industrial Stamps for this article and see if it’s a thing. Turns out it is. So that’s a win for me.
I didn’t enter the cut-throat world of international stamps, but I am a writer. And, as a writer, I can expect a couple of the usual questions. Two biggees are often Where Do You Get Your Ideas From, and How Do I Get My Kid to Read More?
Ah, yes. Well. As a homeschool dad of two, I can tell you what you already know: one child likes Maths, and the other doesn’t. One likes writing, and the other doesn’t. One likes Geography, and the other doesn’t. One likes stamps, and the other doesn’t. They both like days off.
It’s the same with reading. Some people like to read, and some do not. We don’t even live in a world that encourages it. Now, you can watch a video on a subject instead of reading a page, and some articles have even started appending a “two-minute read” or “five-minute read” notice below the title because…because we have to assess our valuable time and figure out whether or not five minutes spent reading something is worth it to us.
It’s sad. It’s true. But that said, the answer is both yes and no. No, there is no foolproof way to interest your kids in reading. Some people have tried comprehension worksheets, where you read a piece and answer questions. Or book reports, where you read a book and submit your opinions on it. All of that tells your child that reading is done with an end in mind: answering a set of questions. Reading is a task to be completed. It has nothing to do with enjoyment: get it done so that we can move on.
So here is my take, the part where I say “yes, there is a way and this is my way and you are welcome to try it and see what happens.”
You can try and take it from the other side. Instead of trying to engage your kids’ reading by getting them books, or comics, or magazines, on their interests in the hope they will take to it, you could start by…
…teaching them writing first.
A writer is a reader. A reader is not necessarily a writer. If you write, you read. It’s a forgone conclusion, a thing that happens, a natural outpouring and by-product. It can’t be helped. As soon as someone starts to write on a particular subject – be it a story on space travel, or what cats have to talk about – eventually you are going to look and see what others have done. You may do so only because you want to know how you stack up against those other guys – are you any good? – and that’s okay. Eventually it will become “let me see how they do it and emulate them, because they are good and I am only learning.”
And while this article will not really cover how to interest your kids in writing – that is a subject we will delve into on another day – here is a way to kick start the process.
Set time aside every week, in your normal schedule. Whether you do one day or two a week is up to you. Use a writing prompt. That is just like a question, or a statement, or a scene or situation. It is just something to prompt the mind in a particular direction. It could be as simple as “what is your favourite sport and why”, or more complicated like “if you could be any animal, which would it be and why?” Write a paragraph, or a few sentences, to start. And then, once you have established a routine of creative writing, you can add in something with just enough unknowns that means you have to – here it comes – look it up. Maybe you have a single page on a situation, which your child can look through to see how that particular writer engaged with that particular topic. Maybe your child simply reads to read something to quickly answer a question and provide more context.
Even the most resistant readers – if they are doing so because it aids their own story – will do it. If you have been clever and used writing prompts according to their interests, they will be reading according to their interests.
Not everyone is a reader. Not everyone enjoys it. But if you put something before it and make it not the main point of the whole thing…it can work.
I will never be interested in stamps. Your child may never be interested in reading. They are their own people, after all. Like everyone, they go through stages. A reader now might not read again for years. Then they pick it up again later.
You like it, or you don’t.
Find writer, author, and coach Adrian Partridge at rudiandraven.com.
Leave A Comment