Make small changes to increase your middle schooler's reading

Better readers read more often. If you can't seem to motivate your child to increase her reading time, take heart. Reading just a few extra minutes a day really adds up.

Your child can make progress if you:

• Enforce teacher-suggested reading time. Many teachers assign 20 minutes a night. That isn't much. But a child who does it faithfully, six nights a week, logs more than 100 hours of reading a year. That's about six long novels!
• Turn off the TV. Your child probably won't sit down to read if the TV is on. Research shows most children can watch about 10 hours of television a week (fewer than two hours a day, far less than the amount of time the TV is on in most households). After 10 hours, reading ability drops.

Reprinted with permission from the April 2008 issue of Parents Still make the difference! (Middle School Edition) newsletter. Copyright © 2008 The Parent Institute, a division of NIS, Inc. Source: Jim Trelease,The Read-Aloud Handbook, ISBN: 0-14-046971-0 (Penguin Putnam, Inc., 1-800-788-6262, www.penguinputnam.com).