One Tired Teacher
One Tired Teacher
OTT 246: 3 Simple Tweaks That Can Transform Your Child’s Reading Routine
Ever wondered why your child resists reading time, despite your best efforts? The solution might be simpler than you think. Rather than completely overhauling your reading routine, small, thoughtful shifts can create breakthrough moments where resistance transforms into excitement.
In this episode, I share three powerful yet incredibly simple tweaks that can revolutionize your child's relationship with books. First, we explore how shifting what we celebrate – from quantity of pages to qualities like persistence and courage – builds intrinsic motivation and a growth mindset about reading. When we acknowledge a child for sticking with a tricky word or choosing their own book, we're celebrating the reader, not just the reading.
Next, we dive into how physical environments dramatically impact reading engagement. That kitchen table with its distractions and clinical feel? It might be undermining your efforts. Discover how creating a designated cozy space – even just a corner with pillows and personal touches – can make reading feel like a special treat rather than an obligation. When children read in spaces they've helped create, ownership and enjoyment naturally follow.
Finally, I reveal how adding a "makerspace twist" to required reading transforms passive consumption into active exploration. By inviting children to solve story problems through building and creating, books become springboards for imagination rather than items to check off a list. This approach deepens comprehension as children must truly understand characters and conflicts to design meaningful solutions. Using simple materials like cardboard, Legos, or recyclables, children engage with stories in ways that build critical thinking alongside reading skills.
The beauty of these approaches is their simplicity – you don't need special training or expensive materials to implement them. Try just one this week and watch for shifts in your child's attitude toward reading. And don't forget to download my free STEM Story Station resource to get started with story-based creation activities. Together, we're creating joyful, confident readers, one gentle tweak at a time.
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Welcome to One Tired Teacher. Episode 246, three Simple Tweaks that Can Transform your Child's Reading Routine. Ah, alright, so you don't need a full-on reading overhaul to help your child love books. Sometimes all it takes is a few thoughtful shifts to build confidence, reduce resistance and reintroduce joy to your daily reading routine. In today's episode, I'm sharing three easy but powerful tweaks you can make. No major systems, no overwhelm, just small, doable changes that lead to big breakthroughs. Hope you stick around. Hope you stick around.
Speaker 2:Welcome to One Tired Teacher. And even though she may need a nap, this teacher is ready to wake up and speak her truth about the trials and treasures of teaching here. She is wide awake. Wait, she's not asleep right now, is she? She is awake right. Okay, from Trina Debery, teaching and Learning your host, trina Devery.
Speaker 1:So in today's video, you're going to learn how or why you, how celebrating progress matters more than how much they read, how measuring progress matters more than how much they read, how your home reading space could be affecting your mindset or your child's mindset, how to reframe required reading with a creative, makerspace infused or inspired twist. All right, so let's talk about tweak number one, and that is celebrating progress differently. This is this is a, this is one that sometimes we don't even think about as being an issue, so let's talk about what the problem is first of all. The problem or the common mistake is we often celebrate how much kids read and not how much they grow. That leads to pressure like how many pages, how many minutes, how fast are we reading? What kinds of books are we reading? But what builds motivation is celebrating effort, consistency and courage. Those are the things that we want to celebrate. All right, the shift or the solution is we want to celebrate things like you stuck with that tricky word. You found a book that you picked. You read while curled up in a fort. Those are the kind of things that we can celebrate. We can celebrate small wins so that kids feel they kind of get used to what it feels like to feel celebrated or to feel encouraged or to feel joyful about reading, and it's. It just takes a little twist. We can use non-reading rewards, like getting to stay up 10 minutes later to finish a chapter. We can draw their favorite scene. We can share a book with someone they love.
Speaker 1:Why do things like this work? Why does this work? It builds intrinsic motivation. It turns reading to a self-driven achievement, not a task where they just have to check off of a to-do list or write out a reading log. It helps kids develop a growth mindset about reading.
Speaker 1:All right, let's talk about tweak number two. Before we do that, if you like anything that you've heard, definitely give me a thumbs up in the comments, all right. Tweak number two is adjust the reading environment, all right. So the problem or the common misstep is that reading happens at the kitchen table, with distractions, with clutter, with zero coziness. For many kids, that doesn't inspire calm, curiosity or even creativity. It doesn't inspire anything positive. It feels like a chore or a task that has to be done.
Speaker 1:The shift is really simple enough and it's really creating a cozy reading zone, even if it's just a corner. You can use a pillow, a blanket, twinkle lights or even a cardboard reading nook. Let them decorate it with book covers, character drawings or affirmations. Like I am a reader, it can be under their bed in the closet. It doesn't have to be anything crazy. Kids love to cozy up and cuddle up. It really does make a huge difference. When I let kids read under their desks when I was in the classroom, they would read for forever. They would read for so much longer. They thought they were doing something kind of that they shouldn't be doing and it made it more adventurous.
Speaker 1:You want to offer choice. You want kids to be able to choose where and how they read. Upside down on the couch, fine. Laying under the table, great. With a flashlight in the closet, even better. So why do these things work? They work because comfort increases concentration and calm. Kids feel ownership over their reading space and reading starts to feel more like a treat and not a chore.
Speaker 1:All right, moving on to rethinking tweak number three. But before we do that, did you like anything you've heard? Definitely, give me a thumbs up. Make sure you share it with a friend who is in the need of hearing some reading inspiration for their child. Let's focus on tweak number three Rethink required reading with a makerspace twist.
Speaker 1:So the common mindset here is that we have to get through this book and when it's required, when reading feels like homework even when it's not then it always feels like homework. It always feels like a chore. If we have to fill out reading logs, I can't even imagine having to fill out a reading log every time I read something. I think it would make me never want to read again. So I think we have to be really careful about things like that. So a common fix is really reframing it. It's maybe reframing reading with not just sitting and getting, but doing.
Speaker 1:So turning reading into doing is something like you ask them what can we, how can we help? What do we do after we read the story? How can we help the character solve the problem? Can we change the ending with an invention or creation? So here are a few examples, like maybe, if you were reading the paper bag princess, you build a fireproof shield for the princess, you create a dragon trap using Legos or pipe cleaners, you design a paper bag outfit upgrade with fabric scraps or brown paper, or maybe you don't think of any of those things and you actually let the child come up with the solutions. They are the one that thinks of the solutions, not you. You're not making a craft. You're allowing them to have open-ended exploration so that they are coming up with the answers. All you have to do is use some simple materials like straws, cardboard, pipe cleaners, toothpicks, legos, play-doh recyclables. Let them draw a blueprint, let them build, let them test it out and then let them revise it. Don't skip the revision. That's really where the magic happens.
Speaker 1:Emphasize process, not perfection. This gives our child a safe place to struggle, a safe place to fail, a safe place to learn from our mistakes. It helps build resilience and problem solving and critical thinking, and it makes reading an active, engaging activity. So why does this work? It encourages deep comprehension. When you have to think about how you would solve a problem, you have to kind of put yourself in the shoes of the character, so you're really thinking. It helps kids take ownership of their reading experience and it reinforces books that are not just so they get through them, but they get to explore and create from them.
Speaker 1:All right, so do you want to try out my freebie? It is a STEM Story Station. It's based on the story diary of a worm. I've been sharing it for a couple of weeks and it comes with the challenge for a challenge where they have to have an open-ended solution. And then they work through a process of thinking they plan, they brainstorm, they work on a blueprint, then they actually test it, they create it, they test it out, they make revisions. They reflect on a blueprint, then they actually test it, they create it, they test it out, they make revisions, they reflect on it. And this is just for you. All you have to do is grab it in the downloads below.
Speaker 1:All right, the find some final thoughts. You don't need to overhaul your child's reading life. You just need to gently reshape how it feels, because when reading becomes cozy, creative and full of choice, everything changes. All right, try one of these tweaks this week and see what shifts and celebrate it. My computer is going crazy. And then make sure that you grab a copy of my stem story station below. Make sure you like this video, you share this with others and you subscribe for weekly tips that help kids fall in love with books. One joyful page at a time. You and I creating joyful, confident readers, readers in the making. One page at a time. See you next time. You, you, you, you.