Dear Editor,First let me say that I applaud and join you in your love of books. I have enjoyed adventuring to new and exciting domains ever since I was 5.
Your article sparked my attention first of all because you just don’t hear many adults talk about their love of reading. Sure we encourage reading amongst our children but we don’t always set an example. I am a firm believer in that children do what they see you do. I am an adult student here at ETSU, with an 8-year-old, a 7-year-old and a 2-year-old at home.
I have always encouraged my children to read as much as possible, to not let boredom or bad weather be an excuse for unused time. Of course my oldest daughter who has been reading since she was 4 was not interested much like your 14-year-old sister, but I was determined to make her interested. I’ve had a collection of books since I was a teenager and at 25 when I found out I was pregnant with my first child, instead of going out and buying cute little sleepers and booties for my baby, I bought books. I read to her while I was pregnant and continued after she was born. Unfortunately, as she got a little older she did not share my love for books. She started reading early because I had her in a private school and day care where they start teaching the child to read at age 3. Her teacher assigned reading material every night, and while she did read, she did not enjoy it. So I started telling her stories about people she saw on TV. Oprah Winfrey and Bill Cosby were two of her favorites. But I would only tell her a portion of their life stories and when she asked me what happened, I told her she had to read the book. She hated that answer but she couldn’t resist and she went on to read their life stories.
I’ve bought many books over the years for all of my children ( Helen Keller is a favorite of my daughters also), and even when I have a million things to do as a mother, wife and student, I take time to not read to my children, but to let them read to me. Both of my daughters have since expressed a love of books and read freely from our hundreds of books at home. Although I have a computer at home, they can only use it to play the educational games that I have purchased for them which include math and reading.
On one disk they can create their own stories and print them out. They also bring home the scholastic books catalog from school every few weeks and I allow them to choose two books and I choose one.
So Erika, be not discouraged when it comes to your sister and her defiance of reading, she will come around, and though she may not admit it rightaway, she will find herself being swept away into other lands, as they say, without even leaving her room.
Now, my children are still pretty young so it was quite easy to get them to read but now, I challenge you to find a way get your sister more interested in reading without her feeling like her friends will think she’s turning into one of the characters from Revenge of the Nerds.
By Kym Gethers

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