I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves. ~Anna Quindlen
TV. If kids are entertained by two letters, imagine the fun they’ll have with twenty-six. Open your child’s imagination. Open a book. ~Author Unknown
The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can’t read them. ~Mark Twain
We have always been good about reading to Keri on a daily basis and now she consistently even reads to herself. However, reading to Cory has been more of a hit and miss practice. He actually loves to look at books and it is incredibly cute to see him “reading” them to himself. He has a whole bookshelf full of board books and nearly every day he will go up to the bookcase and bend over with his little tush in the air until he finds the book he is looking for. He definitely has his favorites he likes to cycle through, but his favorites are continually changing.
More often than not I will sit down and cuddle with Cory and read him a story, but I want to start doing this on a more consistent basis. This is going to be my new habit for the week. Every day before he naps and/or goes to bed, I am going to read with him. After all, right now is a perfect time to get in this groove because this week marks the kickoff for our local libraries summer reading program. Kids and adults can earn prizes for doing something they already love to do.
Make sure to check out your own local library. They also typically have a myriad of other events and activities going on during the summer months such as puppet shows, story times and musical events.
For more information on how you can join Smart Habit Saturday and make positive changes in your life, please visit Lara of The Lazy Organizer.
Great quotes! And great post. Reading beats TV in our house too… hands-down!
It’s wonderful that your kids enjoy books. I love the quotes at the start of this post. I was always happy when my girls would read the many books we had for them, and I still have a lot of them.
Your library has programs for adults too? We are reading up a storm here at our house since our bookmobile’s program started last week. Enjoy the snuggle time!
I love reading to the kids and the love being read to as well. My oldest (who is 3) knows most of the books by heart and reads along, which delights me. My youngest is a little fidgety but loves to hold the books and (pretend) reads to herself. I hope I’m planting the seeds for a lifetime love affair with books.
Love the quotes! Both Emma and Becca are like Cory. They love books and like to “read” by themselves. Because I haven’t made a habit of sitting down and reading to them, sometimes they aren’t as willing as I would like. Once again, I’m copying your habit this week. =)
Great quotes
and a terrific habit! Wombat has more books than any other toy. Sometimes he will sit and ‘read’ by himself, but more often he hands the book very insistently to the nearest adult- usually me. I guess he has worked out that reading is the one thing I will drop everything for! It amazes me that he knows all his books, and will suddenly stop playing with a toy to get an appropriately matching book or vice versa…
Positive Discipline.com is Jane Nelson’s site – I have already signed up for her newsletter and added her blog to my reader ;D
My mom did this with me and besides all the great memories, it has left me with a great love of reading.
I now continue this with my own kids, it’s the part of the day they look forward to the most.
Happy reading this week!
My youngest couldn’t sit still long enough to be read to as well. However, like Cory she would just sit and flip through books, so I started reading to her while she was “reading” her own book and then we would switch. This worked really well. She had something to keep her attention and was getting read too without popping up and running away every 30 seconds!
Monster Man always was my hardest to read to at that age. He would sit for about 2 pages and then either get up and leavc or grab the book and throw it. Now he LOVES for me to read to him. I am currently reading to him from Charlotte’s Web and he never lets me forget a night. Keep up the awesome work.
From the time Gwen was a baby, we’ve always read to her before nap/bedtime. She loves it and it’s something that really settles her down so she’s not all wound up! I need to do it more with Chloe! Good for you though…I love reading with my kids! yay!
I read to my oldest a lot when he was little, but since #2 and #3 came along..we don’t read as much. But….they do love their books! Which is great.
What a good idea. I think I should make this a new habit too.
Thanks for this blog — reading is such a vitally important thing to do and you can never start too early!
I love reading to my kids. My youngest doesn’t hold still long but at least we try! Good luck with your goal this week to read more. I love that libraries have reading programs, gets us more motivated I think. Have fun!
I need to work on reading with my girls. I decided to start participating in SMART Habit Saturdays again and I copied your goal. Your post gave me the motivation that I needed to work on this in my family. Thank you!
~Betty~
Great habit. We read nightly, but I know we could read more.
Have a great week!
hope your week of reading goes great. i love reading books to the kids. so fun!
What a great habit to have! My first and third children LOVE to read, yet we are still struggling with our second child in this area. He doesn’t want to work at being able to read by himself (he is 7 1/2), but he does enjoy being read to.
This works! We began reading to both of our children every night at bedtime from the time they were babies . As they’ve gotten older and our bedtime routine gets harder to keep, I have missed this terribly! It is a great habit and a good bonding activity. They would cry if we had a busy day and bedtime was super late and didn’t have time to read. We would often cave and read a page of whatever chapter book we were on or sometimes when it was absolutely too late, we would say, “I’ll read a word.” But they never went to bed without it. Good Luck!
Great habit! I think this was the first habit I started working on probably three years ago. I guess it was the very first SHS!
Lovely is lucky that she has four big people to read to her.
I have had the same experience with my two kiddos. I read a ton to Caden, but Sydney it has been “hit and miss”. I am trying to be better at taking time out to read to her. She really loves her “boo”. This is a great habit. I hope you do well!
We need more bookshelves in our new house!!! I have raised (am rainsing) 9 readers and am now houseing a lot of books. And a husband who constantly reads-not fiction for him though. Then you add in my books and I’d say bookcases factored big in our building plans but we didn’t build enough to house all the books.