No More Screens: How to Raise Readers in a Tech-Obsessed World

When you were little, you loved reading.

You would sit for hours reading Roald Dahl's The Witches, C. S. Lewis's The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe or the awesome J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series.

No one had to force you to read them. You just did it, voluntarily. But this is not what our kids are doing today. They see books like these around them but they don't pick them up. The may even have a flip through, but sitting down and reading them, that's another story.

What happened?

The internet happened. It took over our lives in about 2011 or 2012 and we haven't looked up from our screens since. The experts are calling it the "head down posture" and apparently we do this for up to 7 hours of our day!

Our kids are now doing the same and may even be on their phones for over 10 hours which makes us shudder. We know it's bad.

Not just for their eyes - where they may end up near sighted - but also for their posture, health and most important of all, their ability to relate to other people.

How did it get this way?

We know how it happened. We gave them phones, iPads and laptops. Out of the goodness of our heart, we thought, we need our kids to get onto technology and become tech-savvy.

At least this is what I and my friends did.

We didn't want our kids left behind. We wanted them to be skilled in the world of computers - the world of the future - but now, years later, we've found ourselves with children who won't read, no matter what we do.

In fact, they will do anything but read. But is this the way it has to be. No, fortunately. There are a lot of kids still reading and there's a reason why.

It's their parents. 

Their mums, dads, grandparents, or whoever it taking care of them have looked technology in the face and said, nope, we're not going to do this all the time.

And they mean it. They realise that if they're children are going to have any chance of reading, they need to be off their devices. They may even not give them devices at all. (If you've already given your child a phone or laptop, don't worry, this is most of us.)

It is just saying that you and them are going to do other things. This means spending more time outdoors and more time doing things that is offline. If they see you doing it, they will follow.

It is the only way.

I would do it with my son's, where I would tell them to go outside and play with their friends. They would moan and grumble but very quickly, they would be racing each other and forget that their games were inside.

On some days, especially if I had bought them a new game (silly but hey, we just had to have Assassins Creed!), they didn't want to go. They would even protest. But I knew that staying inside all day playing games was not good.

I had to practice what I preached. If they were going outside, so was I. If I wanted them to read, I had to read (and sometimes with them).

There is no other way.

We can try to get schools to change but that requires a collective effort and does not have the immediate effect you need. You need change right now, for your kids are your future.

But this decision isn't easy but nothing worthwhile in life is easy. If it is easy, it is probably not worth doing. Getting our kids to begin reading and then enjoy reading is a challenge, especially in the world we now find ourselves in but with enough determination, you can do it.

Your kids will resist your efforts at first, as all good little (or big) humans do when beginning anything new. But over time, they will begin to enjoy their time offline and in years to come they will even be glad that you said and did what you did.

My two sons now spend evenings chatting about the stories they read as kids and how they were way better as books. The new Witcher series is a poor adaptation of the novels, apparently.

This is why Duchess and Bruno was born. Our packs are designed to get kids offline with learning that’s fun, meaningful, and sparks joy in them, their parents, and their teachers. Our comics don’t just engage; we inspire a love for stories that no screen can rival.

Now, let's get our kids offline!