:i read, you read, we read:

my love for books goes back as far as my memory will take me. stories allow us to escape to another place and time, broadening our knowledge. opening our minds to new and exciting things while deepening our imagination.

we are on a journey of creating a love for books and stories in our children. when our darlings were just little, crawling about, we read the baby einstein alpha books. as they grew so did their love for snuggling into our laps and fading away into stories told by others. here are a few ways that we are instilling a love for reading in our children.

::weekly library visits::

each week we make a trip to our public library. when we first started going it was no easy task keeping up with three little ones. with time, like all things, they adjusted and we now have a great routine for our weekly visits. i have a list of books i want to read for the week in relation to home studies and their interest. they are allowed to walk the rows and pull a certain number each. six for eisley, because she's six and three for durgin because he's three. this just helps keep things in check. we usually leave the library with around 30 books for the week.

once upon a time, i tried to take the three little darlings up to the third floor to pull books for myself. that. did. not. work. thankfully our library has an online request option. i simply go online and request books for myself and they are held at the circulation desk for pick up. easy-peasy. 

::they see us reading::

my husband and i are avid readers. our children see our stacks of books throughout our home and ask questions. what are you reading? what is this book about? books in plain view are great conversation starters.

it took a while but our children now go to books during leisure time as opposed to television. we still watch shows on most days but it is definitely no longer the default to boredom.

::incentive::

we also developed an incentive chart for our kindergartner. each time she reads a book aloud she gets a stamp. when she fills her chart, twenty-five stamps, she gets a prize. she has already filled it once and well on her way to the second and we are crazy proud of her!

"children are made readers on the laps of their parents"

-emilie buchwald