How to get your child intersted in reading

As you know I am busy preparing for the launch of our first book Samantha's Mystery The Curse of Ravenscourt  for February 1st.

I thought it might be interesting to some of you to hear my story.
I have to be honest and tell you all that I never fully understood how to read and retain what I have read until I was in my twenties.

  I have dyslexia a type of learning disability and reading was always a chore for me. I struggled with reading, writing and math all through school. It is still a problem I have to day and I work hard to correct and over come it.  My mother, was more then an avid reader, she would read several books a week and often 3 of 4 at a time, I could never understand how she could do that and remember everything.

My mother told me that it did not matter what I read as long as I read something. She did not care if it was the cereal box or a comic or a magazine as long as I was reading.

When I was 18 I went to cooking school. I wanted to be a Chef. There was a lot of reading, mostly in French and we had to memorize our recipes. It was my love of cooking, baking and glossy gourmet magazines with recipes I longed to try that finally got me reading, and retaining what I had read.
The lesson here is find something you want to read and practice.

I am a visual person as well so you will notice that in most of my writing I have lots of photos showing "what to do" to accompany the writing.  I learn by watching first, and I think many others do too.

 
My son struggles with reading as well and while I hate to see him struggle so much, I know that if we keep practicing and find something for him to read at his level that he is interested in, reading will become easier and he will feel more confident.

 So what do some experts say?
About.com  says "Motivating your tween to read is so important, and when your child hits middle school, reading skills play an important role in school success. Recent research indicates that readers do better on standardized testing, such as the SATs, than do non-readers. And don't forget about the enjoyment that reading can bring an individual. The good news is your preteen doesn't have to read the classics in order to benefit from reading. Tweens may take an interest in a book if they're familiar with the story. If your daughter recently saw a great movie, see if you can find the book from which the movie was based. How many tweens rediscovered the love of reading after watching the Harry Potter movies or The Chronicles of Narnia series?"

 (the above photos are the newest releases for the mystery series)
I have to agree that it is easier to get children to read about things they are interested in and if your child is already interested in the Historical dolls offered by American Girl  then the Mystery series of books may just be what your tween needs to springboard into reading and adventure. Read it together, take turns and talk about what you read. For me when in doubt, I  switch to recipes and create something tangible.  Keep encouraging reading,even with recipes, you have a tangible product to show for your work, this is it's self motivating.
I hope you will consider joining us as we begin out journey February 1st!
As with all my posts I would love to hear from you so please leave me a comment here or email me at karenmowen@gmail.com