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World Book Day: Ten family fun ideas with your tweens

As your tween gets older, reading as a hobby tends to drop down the list of "fun things to do". More often than not, screens and friends take over your kids' spare time, so hobby reading might suffer a bit. We speak to Year 5 teacher, Kimberly Ball, to find out ways to keep reading at the top of your family fun list!


Every year, parents ask me about ways to stay involved with their children's reading. As I work with nine to ten year old kids, I know this is a tricky time to keep them engaged with most things, so here are my suggestions:


  1. Visit the library (I usually challenge the kids to do this with their friends instead of raiding the sweet aisle at Tesco, haha!).

  2. Go on a scavenger hunt search for words that start with letters, such as “B”.

  3. Write/read a recipe together when cooking or baking.

  4. Be a reading role model - let your child catch you reading a book or newspaper.

  5. Go screen free and set time aside each night to read together.

  6. Get your child’s favourite song lyrics and read/learn them together.

  7. If your tween is learning a language at school, try to read a picture book in that language.

  8. Ask your tween to read to their little siblings, cousins or friends.

  9. Read a title of a book that no one knows and try to guess what it's going to be about (this is a fun one for dinner with a big group).

  10. Create a book club with your family. Pick a start date and read. This could be with another school family, aunt, grandparents, etc. Call each other or FaceTime to discuss chapters that you read.


I've also compiled a few reading lists to help get your tweens interested in a new book or series:



Happy World Book Day everyone!


Have your own reading traditions already? We would love to hear how you celebrate READING all year long.

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