It’s no secret that in our house we like to read.

Our Family Library

We are blessed to have a library in our home – in what most people would call their formal living room. Right as your walk in our front door, you meet our friends of days gone by. Hardback, soft cover, picture-filled, reference, literary giants, epic tales, they are all there, keeping us company throughout our days. We live for library day, whether it entails picking a few gems from our own library, or going to the public library where even more adventures await us in the pages that live there. We are thrilled when we can all snuggle up on a Sunday afternoon with our books and some blankets and read the day away.

It has been that way in our family for years – in fact, it has been that way in our marriage since we met over a decade ago. So I suppose it should be no surprise to us that one of our kids’ favorite things to do is read. I must confess, I did not teach my children to read. They both went to a private school last year where they both learned to read on their own level. Emma who is in 1st grade is reading several skill levels above her peers, and Timmy who is in Kindergarten is reading at about a 1st grade level. While their teachers at school taught them the nuts and bolts of phonetical reading, I still take credit for creating an environment and lifestyle that fosters a love of reading and therefore cultivates the skill in our children.

Five Ways to Cultivate Young Readers:

1. Read. Not to them, not with them, not for them or about them. Pick up a book that interests you and read. Let them see you reading as you stir the soup, waiting at a red light, or in line at the grocery store. Let them see you toss your book in your purse for those unexpected snippets of time that you can spend reading. Develop a love of reading and you will see the fruits of that love blossom in your children. So go ahead, get the latest John Grisham novel, get a cup of tea, snuggle on the couch with a blanket and read a chapter. Then pat yourself on the back because after all, you’re doing it for the kids, taking one for the team.

2. Limit screen time for yourself and the children. Clearly, social networking media is something I think highly of. Writing for Heart of the Matter, authoring a blog, facebooking, and tweeting are all ways I stay connected with the women in my life that help me to be a better wife, mother, teacher. But let the kids see you set boundaries for yourself and their minds will connect it to their own behavior. This way you are less likely to wind up screaming, “Turn off the video game and pick up a book for goodness sake!!!!” Because, really? How is that enticing?

3. Make reading a family activity. Everyone goes to the library, everyone gets a book, everyone reads. Sometimes we lay all over each other on our sectional couch in the family room and there are 20 kids books strewn all about and Tim and I each have our book. And we just read. Nothing quite beats a good ole’ “family read”….

4. Except maybe a good ole’ “family read aloud”. Those are awesome, too. Be sure to do that. You can choose books according to age level, interest, or skill level if you want to have the kids help with the reading aloud. Or mix it up. We read aloud in a number of different ways around here. The kids read their own books to one another during the school day, and also to me while I am cooking, or folding laundry, or doing dishes. “Sit up on the counter and read to Mama, dear.” They love it! They get one on one time with me, and they get to show off their mad skills, and they get to sit on the counter! What’s not to love? We also read to them. Picture books? Yes! Some of our current favorites are Rain Makes Applesauce, Once Upon a Cloud, Blueberries for the Queen, and Roxaboxen.

We are also reading to them from a chapter book series called The Magic Treehouse. Have you heard of it? Hmmm, I thought maybe. We are keeping the end in mind as we read chapter books. It’s a learned skill, I believe, having the patience, attention span, and retentiveness for chapter books. So we are reading MTH series in preparation for some of the more heavy hitters like Anne of Green Gables, Little House, and Chronicles of Narnia. This brings me to my next tip.

5. Keeping the end in mind. Have some goals, and try to achieve them. And by this, I do not mean a goals & rewards program like pizza hut or anything like that. But if that’s what you need to get your kids reading, by all means look into those programs. Reading voraciously is wonderful, and reading everything and anything y’all can get your hands on is not to be discouraged, but perhaps we as parents can help to steer the course just a tad in helping with the book selection process. One thing that we try to do is encourage the kids to get several library books that are on their reading level and one that is 1-2 levels above their current skill level.

Timmy (kindergarten) reading The Polar Express aloud to us

This way, we can sit down with them and work through the book together, and their little brains are given a workout while they enjoy reading with mom or dad.

Here’s an idea of a specific goal: If you want your child to develop her attention span in the classroom, one great way to do this is to start reading chapter books. Our kids are too young for the Harry Potter series, but for all it’s controversy, I can tell you I see the merits in something that got kids reading for long periods of time. That was time they spent away from screens of any type, and time they spent engrossed in some well-written, fun literature. I had numerous friends tell me that after reading the series, they saw their kids’ grades improve because attention span issues were improved. So yes, reading, while excellent as a pursuit for it’s own merits, also can bring growth in other areas of our child’s life.

Stacey and her family recently relocated to Phoenix, Arizona where they enjoy hiking the many local mountains, swimming in their pool, and exploring all the family-friendly venues Phoenix has to offer. This is her first year officially homeschooling after several years of co-schooling. Curriculum changes, schedule re-vamping, and learning how to relax has been a theme around Nazareth Academy. It has been a learning experience for the whole family, but the fruits of homeschooling have become abundantly evident and Stacey is grateful for the long-awaited call to homeschool her children.