If they aren’t kicking a ball down the street, they’re climbing a tree or swinging from a rope.

Most of these very active children, says Mary Leonhardt in Parents Who Love Reading, Kids Who Don’t, are not going to sit down for long periods of time to read. In fact, she says, “it’s difficult to get them to sit down and do anything.” But there are things you can do as a parent to encourage your active child to love reading.

First, make sure you have lots of interesting reading material handy so kids can read on the run. They can read a short magazine article while they’re waiting for the microwave to heat up their snack. They can read a comic book while they’re waiting for a sister to get out of the bathtub.

“Reading material near food is, of course, crucial,” Leonhardt advises. Because active children run around so much, they also need to eat pretty frequently. See if you can’t find a shelf in your kitchen that you can keep stocked with reading material, just as you probably keep a shelf stocked with healthy snacks.

Like all skills, reading improves with practice. Active children need to have reading material handy.

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