Starting a family book club

A family book club can be a great idea to keep your child motivated during the school year as well as getting them into the amazing hobby of reading.

A family book club can be just you and your child, your whole family, or even some neighbours if you like. The whole idea of a book club is to make reading fun and accessible to your child.

Here are some tips that may help you start your book club:

Keep it fun

The message that you want to give your child is that there is far more to reading than what school offers.

By keeping the club light and fun but still educational, your child will be far more willing to keep doing it.

Perhaps you could play some fun games in between discussing the book or even have some special treats put aside for book club night only.

Not too often

There’s no point in putting pressure on your child to have a book read in one week – especially if they are not fast readers.

By making the book club a bi-monthly, or even a monthly occasion, your child will have lots of time to take in their book and really start to look forward to book club night.

Write it down

Give your child a notebook in which they can write down thoughts or insights as they are reading the books that may be helpful when they sit down to discuss it.

Same page

Ensure that any book club guidelines you place on your child are also followed by any adult involved. This will mean your child will feel it is something fun you are doing together, rather than something you want them to do.

You can use this list of the top ten favourite kid’s books as a guide of where to get started with your book club: