Question: I've always read the newspaper so has my husband. How can we get our children to follow in our footsteps? - Newspaper Readers
Answer: Just as you help your children with their traditional textbooks, you can help them acquire the newspaper-reading habit. Your children's schools may be doing classroom activities using newspapers. However, for your children to become avid newspaper readers, you will need to promote newspaper reading in your home throughout the year. The newspaper is a textbook that your children will use throughout their lives for fun and to become better-informed citizens.
Keep in mind, however, that you can't force your children to read the newspaper, but you can entice them into reading it. For example, if your children love hockey, casually ask if they saw the story in the paper about the local hockey team. Then walk away, leaving the paper open to the page with the story on it. Your children will probably read the story.
Another easy way to introduce your children to reading the paper is to read an excerpt from an advice column about teen behavior. This can lead to a discussion of what advice both you and your child might have given for the same situation. After reading the column to your child each day and having entertaining discussions about it, you are likely to find the child reading the column to you.
Most middle- and high-school students will read the newspaper for movie and weather information. Suggest that they also use it to find desired items on sale or bargains in the classifieds section. And increase their reliance on the newspaper by suggesting it as an excellent resource for school reports. Also, be sure to introduce your children to online newspapers.