Want your kids to read more? Try “slow reading.” The concept, promoted by Thomas Newkirk, professor of English at the University of New Hampshire, suggests that students get more enjoyment out of and have greater success with reading when they slow down.
Here are Newkirk’s strategies for slowing down and savoring the written word with your child.
Memorize. Memorization is often called “knowing by heart” and for good reason. Memorizing enables us to possess text in a special way.
Read aloud. Even older kids can appreciate a human voice animating the words on a page.
Read poetry. Poems demand a slower pace and usually several readings-and are best when read aloud.
Savor passages. Kids know something adults often forget-the deep pleasure of repetition, of rereading, or of having parents reread, until the words seem to be part of them.
