The child is not made to look forward much yet, and the mother who is pained and distressed because he will not look forward, shows a great ignorance of the nature of the infantile mind, and of the manner of its development.

If she finds fault with her boy for not feeling distinctly enough the future advantages of learning to lead him to love study now, she is simply finding fault with a boy for not being possessed of the most slowly developed faculties of a man.
The way, then, to induce children to attend to such duties as learning to read, is not to reason with them on the advantages of it, but to put it simply on the ground of authority.

"It is very irksome, I know, but you must do it.

When you are at play, and having a very pleasant time, I know very well that it is hard for you to be called away to puzzle over your letters and your reading.

It was very hard for me when I was a child.