Resolved: Read More Books!

Every new year, many of us make the resolution to Read More Books! – and help our kids read more, too. Guess what? All you need is a few simple habit changes.

First, a quick look at habits, which are actions that you do over and over until they become automatic. Think about making coffee in the morning. If you’ve been doing this for a while, you likely don’t have to think much about each action (getting out the coffee can, turning on the machine, pulling out a mug, etc.) as you do them. You just…do it.

Psychologists say that these habits are being done by “the second self” – ingrained actions that don’t take conscious thought. It’s been estimated that almost half of what you do every day – 43-48% of our daily actions – is governed by habit. Basically, your “first self” is the thinking, conscious part. The “first self” helps you drive to your new workplace for the first dozen times; after that, your “second self” takes over and you don’t need to remember to turn left at 15^th Street, etc.

Bottom line, the way to create a new habit is to make the action:

1. Obvious
2. Easy
3. Attractive / Satisfying

For example, giving children a bar of soap with a toy inside will help make washing hands both attractive and satisfying. Listening to your favorite podcast when you take a walk or run in the neighborhood is satisfying. Putting the vitamin juice in the front of the refrigerator and having a glass on your placemat makes it obvious and easy to drink in the morning.

The trick is to develop a “second self” compendium of easy habits that will help you – and your child – read more.

How can you make a reading habit obvious, easy, attractive, and satisfying?

Here are some ideas to try this year.

1. Cars are for book reading

Make a house rule that when you are driving your kids to soccer or school or anywhere else, that this is the time for reading. Keep a few high-interest books in a bag in your trunk or back seat just for this purpose.

2. Magazine subscriptions for birthday gifts

Who doesn’t love to get mail? And when it’s a colorful, beautiful magazine such as “Highlights,” “Sports Illustrated for Kids” or “National Geographic for Kids” that comes every month, what child can resist flipping through those pages and learning more? (Did you know that many of our libraries also allow you to check out magazines?)

3. Book basket in the bathroom

This is my secret weapon to increase reading for people of any age. Ban phones from the throne and install a basket of books instead.

Here are a few recent books that are wonderful to read and very attractive to boot.

“Emilio Sloth’s Modern Manners” by Renée Ahdieh

“Ice Journey of the Polar Bear” by Martin Jenkins

“The Adventures of Penguin and Panda. Volume 1, Surprise!” By Tulsa’s own Brenda Maier

A Quick Word about Phonics & Reading Pleasure for Kids

If your child is still learning how to decode – the first part of reading, which involves the long process of translating letters into sounds and sounds into meaning – it’s important to know that reading is going to be difficult at first.

But as they are learning decoding, you can still make reading something pleasurable – and a reward-giving habit – by remembering to also focus on what’s beyond phonics.

Read aloud often from a variety of books to help children get the sense of what reading should sound like in their heads, but also to introduce them to vocabulary and background knowledge. The more your child knows about lots of different topics, and the more words they know, the easier reading will become and the more they will understand what they read, particularly as they move away from learning to read and toward reading to learn.

For Adults Only! Books on Habit Formation

“Good Habits, Bad Habits: The Science of Making Positive Changes that Stick” by Wendy Wood is more research-based, written by a clinical psychologist who has spent her career trying to figure out what “habit” actually even means, and how it manifests itself in our lives.

“Atomic Habits: Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results” by James Clear is more practical, with lots of lists and ideas and examples, including the very personal and real story of the author, who had a horrific accident in high school but was able to put his life back together through small changes in his daily behavior.

“The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business” by Charles Duhigg is a mix of the two, with a personal story from the author, backed up with research.