As mentioned in previous posts, ensuring your child develops a love and aptitude for reading is one of the single most important things you can do for them educationally. Today’s reddit parenting advice comes from a parent wondering about a child who seems uninterested in stories.
I have a kid who doesn’t really care for story books. Almost all day long, he reads non-fiction books on butterflies, construction, flower, trees, bugs, ships, rockets, etc. Is this anything to worry about? Is this a phase? Btw, he’s 4. My concern is that he might become a bit robotic (like me).
There should be no surprises that this child is a boy. Boys tend to develop an interest in the physical world around them. They are often less interested in sitting down for story time than girls who from a young age tend to enjoy sitting on Mum or Dad’s lap for a story. This has been something I have seen in my parenting.
It’s also no surprise that boys tend to enjoy non-fiction books either. Consider your average adult male. What are they more likely to read? Of course you can come up with counter examples and exceptions, but men tend to be interested in non-fiction more than women. In fact one things I have noticed is that many adult women read little to no non-fiction, and where you do see women reading non-fiction it can often be trashy magazine articles that focus on relationship drama. No doubt this commentary will be seen as incredibly sexist, which to be honest makes it all the more enjoyable to write. But getting back to the point – boys and girls are different, and this extends to their reading choices.
Now as a man who does happen to enjoy fiction (whilst not neglecting non-fiction), I happen to believe that we need to encourage our boys to develop a love for narrative. Our faith itself is a great story made up of many smaller narratives. Narrative can teach us things in a powerful way. Good novels extend our experience of life in a way that broadens our understanding of the world and human nature.
From my experience, training a boy to love fiction does take time and patience. My oldest boy still tends to enjoy reading factual books about historical events or how-to books, and it has taken some years to develop his interest in narrative to the point that he will pick up and read fiction.
So how did we approach this? Well, first of all, I did ensure that I read to him. It’s important for boys to see men reading and enjoying reading. They need to see it as a masculine occupation. Secondly, reading became a part of our daily routine. Every night I would read to him, and as boys tend to like routine, this seemed to help. Thirdly I chose books carefully. I would repeat books to him regularly when he was a toddler so that they became familiar. Children seem to enjoy this repetition and knowing what comes next. Then as he grew older I began to read him chapter books. Although he has sisters around his age, I tended to choose books that I thought were more masculine than feminine. My theory, which seemed to work, was that if I find a book that he likes, his sisters will like it too. The reverse of this is not true. The few times I chose a more feminine book, for instance, Anne of Green Gables, he was not impressed and did not enjoy the story. Then as he grew older I set goals for him to achieve in his reading. This year I have set him the goal of 52 fiction books in a year. While his sister would probably achieve that in a month or two, this for him is a significant achievement. And since he seems, like many boys, to be task-oriented, he is intent on insuring he meets this goal.
So I don’t think there is anything to worry about in a four year old boy who loves non-fiction books. Yes you want to broaden his interests – it’s not great to leave him there, but it’s natural for boys to prefer non-fiction. They are the future dominion takers who go out into the earth under Christ extending his kingly reign.