Family Reading Time

I have a ever growing and never shrinking list of books that I want to read. The list never shrinks because I have a really hard time fitting book reading into my days. I can only pack so many things into my day and book reading, unfortunately lands towards the bottom of the to-do list. Usually most of my reading occurs late at night (and early into the morning) the night before the book is due back to the library.

This is no good for many reasons. I am none too happy the next morning. I often don't get it finished and have to pay a late fee (it's only $.10 / day, but still, annoying). My kids don't see me reading, so I'm not setting a good example for them. And the books I read are much less enjoyable when I read them in this stress packed manner.

So, I've decided that we are going to family (really just me and the kids) reading time each day. We always read a couple books to our kids before nap and bed times. But, this will be a time where they can sit and "read" to themselves and I can read my books. I have a 3 year old and a 11 month old, so really not much reading is occurring for them, but it's more about the habit right now.

The 11 month old goes into the play pen with some board books and quite books. He really enjoys himself a lot actually. It's quite cute watching him turn the pages and look through the books. My 3 year old gets a book and sits with me on the couch. I settle in to read my book while my 3 year old runs back and forth to his room grabbing more books as he finishes one. Reading time will usually last anywhere from 20 - 30 minutes. I was quite surprised that both my kids' attention spans lasted this long, I expected 10 minutes to go by and both of them begging to do something else.

We've been doing this in the late morning, after my little one wakes up from his morning nap and before lunch time. It seems to work pretty well. We go the park in the mornings, so my 3 year old has most of his sillies worked out and is able to sit quietly for a while. And my little guy is always pretty chill when he wakes up, so he's happy sitting in the play pen and not necessarily wanting to roam around and get into mischief.

We've done this for several days now and it has been wonderful. I'm almost done with my current book and it's not even due for another week!

I know this is really nothing new - I'm sure a lot of you do this in your own homes. But, it is new to me and I love it. This works for our family. Find out what works for other families over at We Are THAT Family's Works for Me Wednesday Carnival.