I love books. I love reading. I read a lot.
No really a lot - like 50-75 books a year just for fun.
I owe my love of reading to a number of folks, most notably, my Aunt Lois Deasy who read to my brother and myself when we were little. She was fabulous and reading the stories out loud and making me want to be able to read them myself.
I would suggest a few things for parents who would like to pass on the love of reading to their kiddos.
1) Read to your kiddos. Let them see you enjoy reading. It can be on a device or on paper, but let them sit in your lap and read to them. Encourage them to imagine what they “see” as you read.
2) As they get older, read with them. Let them do most of the work, but help out when they need it. This can still be done in your lap - it is a great way to share time with them. Let them know how much you enjoy spending time with them as they read.
3) Let them read to you. My dad was brilliant with this. He let my brother and I read the newspaper out loud to him. It was written at about the 5th grade level back then and he read it every day. It got us involved in reading it with him - priceless.
4) Let them tell you about what they are reading or hav read. Kind of like having a book report - and you might decide you want to read it too!
5) Get them their own library card. We used to go to the library once a week to pick up books. My town had a Carnegie Library. I read voraciously. Cool thing - libraries are FREE! I remember the day the librarian told me that they had decided that I could go upstairs and check out books - in the adult library rather than just in the kids library downstairs!!!! You can’t imagine my geeky joy at that.
6) Get some books you love to read on your own - nothing as good as an example where mom, dad, uncles, aunts, cousins, and grandparents obviously read too.
Now back to some Asimov based reading for me. I’m on vacation.
Foundations Fears is pretty good so far…
