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Paying your child to read a book?
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Given that screen time among children has increased, it’s fair to conclude that leisure reading is an increasingly endangered pursuit among children.
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION: UNSPLASH
Mireille Silcoff
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This summer, I paid my 12-year-old daughter US$100 (S$130) to read a book. As far as mum manoeuvres go, it was definitely last ditch, and the size of the payout was certainly excessive. I can’t say I am proud – but I am extremely satisfied. Because the plan worked. It worked so well, I’d suggest other parents of reluctant readers open their wallets and bribe their kids to read, too.
My daughter is a whip-smart kid, definitely smarter than I was at 12. But until I resorted to bribery, she’d never read an entire chapter of a book for pleasure. She’d read books for school, but getting her to do that was like pulling teeth, and on her own she’d read a few graphic novels and listened to the audiobooks of the Harry Potter series.
