Please Please Please inculcate the reading habit in kids  

According to the publishing industry stats, YA (or Young Adult) books are the only ones that haven't suffered in sales in the past decade. So kids are better at reading than adults are. Isn't that kind of sad? So yes, kids need to read, but make sure they KEEP reading.
I don't think going techno is going to help our world. Maybe we'll be saving trees, but we'll be wasting other and more valuable resources. Trees are one of the most renewable resources we have, the stuff we use to make our computers? Not so much. Books can be recycled. Lots of computers wind up in land-fills, and they don't break down easily.
Reading is a good habit! It helps people to learn and expand their knowledge, no matter what they read! I don't even like the push to eBooks. Sure, people are still reading, but is it really good for us to have so much dependance on technology? What happens when our technology fails? Technology is really good at that. Computers crash, hardrives erase their own files, it's a fact of life! Plus, like I said, trees are a really good renewable resource. The stuff we use to make our electronics aren't.

I don't think that books will ever stop being published entirely. There's a large enough market of people like me who are really tactile and don't care to read a book that we can't touch, turn the pages, etc. But printing companies and bookstores will probably get smaller.
I think you're totally right that kids need to be encouraged to read. My grandparents read to me every night when I was a kid, and as a result I learned to read earlier than my peers. I still love reading. But I'm acquainted with a high school English teacher who says that she gets a lot of students who are in high school and have never actually read an entire book. How sad!
I think that starting early, like my grandparents did with me, is the key. Kids love stories, and if you feed them a lot of books they like as kids, they will probably continue to enjoy them as adults. Maybe use the technology that's so popular now to encourage kids to read- even if they're reading on a computer screen or an e-reader, it's still reading.

I totally agree with you- reading is a VERY important part of how kids' minds develop. I swear, if I never read Harry Potter and Redwall and all those adventure books as I kid, I would never have picked up the novels I am reading now (and learned about philosophies and sociological issues through them), and hence I would be a COMPLETELY different person.

I think that encouraging kids to read is a good thing. But, your children are right that books use a lot of paper. I learned today that all the paper used by Americans collectively could make a 10 foot wall between New York and Tokyo. Downloadable books and audio books are a good solution to this resource crunch. You're still accessing the story and learning all the vocabulary words but using less resources. Also, going to the library instead of buying every new book and DVD you want is a good idea. That way you can experience new materials without having to buy them and waste more resources.

I think what should be done is introduce love of learning for reading before introducing the gizmos and techno crap. Thus, it is up to the parents to discipline their children. Anyway, in that way, when they are introduced to the gizmos there's a bigger chance that they would still choose reading. When I get children, I plan to really plant in them the love of reading. I'll probably hide the TV somewhere and use the computer minimally so as to set a good example for them. I don't think they will be deprived of entertainment if I don't give them computer or game consoles access until they're in highschool. I'll just give them books to read.

I have a friend, they grew up without TV. Their parents would just make them read. And because of that, all of them are doing well in highschool and got into good universities. They are also fun and smart individuals and very nice to have a conversation with. I used to think they had a sad childhood. But I believe otherwise now.

They could always learn to enjoy using laptops, cellphones, and other techno crap when they're older. Love of reading should be inculcated in them first. In that way, when they obtain the laptops and cellphones, they will use it properly and not get so addicted with it. Or, as their reasoning goes, they can read books online and not waste trees anymore. Which is what I do since I get free novels on the internet and read them on the computer.

I am a big believer in books. I grew up around books, and I love books. I'm such a bookworm, I think I practically blinded myself. Through books I learned how to speak properly, and exercised my imagination well. I think I may have rubbed off on my 7 year old daughter. She doesn't like watching TV much, and easily gets bored by cartoons unless it's a cartoon she's seen over and over and is very familiar with. She spends her time reading, or writing. I encourage her whenever she's reading and especially make time to read with her whenever I can. This is the only bonding we get together because I usually work at night and I'm asleep during the day. So before she goes to bed, we read a story together. When I'm off work, we read a book together. And that's how I'm trying to get her to like books more than anything else.

I think reading is important too. I think if kids can't sit down and read books, they can't stay too long on reading from the computer either. I'm not much of a reader but I still read at times. Before starting a 5-month review for my major exam, I finished a book as a warm up for my studying.

I remember my aunt used to read to me bedtime stories when I was a kid. I also had some disney and other children's books. I even made my own "storybook" on a notebook when I was a kid. If parents or at least relatives would take time to show children the importance of reading, the habit would be embedded in the children. It really is important for the future of humanity as every body of knowledge needs to be passed on and used for development.

very true one should be inculcating the reading habits in kids for their future growth and one should make an habbit of kids from the very begning so that they develop the habbits!in the near future!

I agree that reading books is very significant to the kids.The parents,guardians or nanny should expose their kids with books.they should develop that interest and love for reading books at the early years. They can do it by reading short stories to their kids as they about to go to sleep, bring them to the bookstore and let them see different kinds of books.It is also good that you can have a reading corner in your house or a mini library so as they can see book around and it's also good that they can see adult reading books so that they will fallow because kids are great imitators.

the love for reading should be encourage at the early years. As a pre-school teacher I see to it that, I read stories to my students everyday and i let them choose the book that they want to see or just scan on it. That's my way of helping the kids develop the love for reading.

hi vidasandii.

i couldn't agree with you more. yes, how important it is to read or learn to read. reading introduces us to the world of language and numeracy and eventually to many opportunities in a world we have come to know and live in as it is today. just like a thousand journeys which begin with one simple footstep, a thousand knowledge begins with one simple read.