A trick for our little readers who always want more!

Have I ever told you that my husband is teaching literature at the college? You will understand that the house is lined with books! We have 6 well-stocked libraries that you collect and fill over time. In one of our recent long conversations to redo the world, he confided to me that, in his 12 years of experience, he had noticed a regression among his students. Clearly, his Cégep students are finding it increasingly difficult to concentrate and read more than two pages. According to him, the hyper-stimulation associated with the use of the screens would be largely responsible for this phenomenon. This conversation worked the little hamster in my head (which must be so exhausted from running!) and a few days later I arrived with a new trick for my children-reader-future-cégepiens. Remember the compulsory readings at the Cégep? Some were wonderful discoveries, others were torture. However, it was necessary to make the effort to read since it was an obligatory test. So I went through some books that seemed boring at first glance, whose plot put some time to put in place, but which once the first 100 pages passed became extremely interesting. If I had not been forced to do so, I would have gone to the side of a number of very interesting works that have shaped my experience as a reader and have made me grow intellectually. My children are already very good readers. Since they are very small, I give them reading blocks. Every evening we have a period of 20 minutes where everyone reads what pleated or felt the pages in silence. Each period of quiet and attentive reading allows them to amass a block of the General Store. My oldest loves to read comic books and short novels. His younger brother, he, swears only through documentaries and information magazines. For them, these are comfortable readings that respond to their cravings at the moment. I wanted to bring them out a little bit of their comfort zone, to take them to read books that go beyond their interests. If your children have reached a fairly high reading level, you will love the following! We have therefore set up a body of compulsory readings at two or three books a year. Just enough to get them out of their comfort zone, but not too much to discourage them. I very much like the new children's literature, but it was important for me that my children know the great literary classics, those who have gone through the test of time, those that everyone has read in her childhood ... or would have read! So I bought some twenty books that they would have to read between 7 and 13. In each of the books, we have pasted a library card (which you can find in the small tricks section) where all members of the family will have to write their names once the book is read and an appreciation of 10. Of course, we parents will also have to read each of these novels and fill out the card in order to give the example but also to be able to discuss it with them! Here is my list of great classics, which will certainly inspire you: 7 years The Wizard of Oz -Frank Baum Charlie and the Chocolate Factory -Roald Dahl 8 years old The Little Prince -Antoine de St-Exupéry Black Beauty -Anna Sewell Sophie's Malheurs -La contesse de Ségur 9 years The World Tour in 180 Days -Jules Vernes Peter Pan -J.M. Barrie Alice in Wonderland -Lewis Carroll 10 years The Adventures of Pinocchio -Collodi White Croc -Jack London The marvelous journey of Nils Holgerson -Selma Lagerlöf 11 years The Adventures of Tom Sawyer -Mark Twain Harry Potter J.K. Rowling The Little House in the Prairie -Laura Ingalls Walder 12 years Robinson Crusoe -Daniel Defoe Oliver Twist -Charles Dicken Frankenstein -Mary Sheilley 13 years old Arsène Lupin Gentleman Cambrioleur -Maurice Leblanc The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde -Robert Louis Stevenson Bilbo the Hobbit -J.R.R. Tolkien Not always easy to motivate children to get into this new book, which at first does not interest them? Very often I read the first pages with them to help them enter the story and to camp the characters well. I leave them to themselves once the plot is well under way and their curiosity titillated. These moments of shared reading stimulate their interest and give them the taste of plunging themselves into the book without my help. As Philippe Meirieu puts it in his book How to help her child succeed, "parents have a role to play, soothe worry, calm the fear of the unknown, end up with the child ... then move away on the tip of the feet and leave it to the joy of discovering new pleasures to understand." So, to give them a little extra boost, I grant 20 blocks of the General store For each book completed (with or without my accompaniment!) To adapt this idea according to your child's reading skills. A book a year can be enough at the very beginning, the important thing is that it is just hard enough to allow them to live successes and not to be discouraged! For more suggestions I invite you to consult this article. The Press Or to get the book 1001 children's books to be read before growing up.