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When I was little, every night after dinner, each of us chose our favorite chair and read until bedtime. My mom, my dad, my sister and me, all curled up in chairs around the black wood stove which heated our house. A combination of no television and this daily family reading habit helped make me into the reader I am today.
That and the library. My mom would bring a cardboard box and we’d fill the box with our books for the week. She’d strap it to the back of her bike and we’d ride like ducklings behind her, anxious to start our new books.
Even today, my parents still have the same schedule. Eat, read, sleep.
But, I don’t. I’m pretty random. After dinner, the girls play with dad. I usually work at the computer. Except now I’m wondering if I should be reading a book – just to show my girls that mom spends time reading, too.
Bedtime is reading time – reading aloud and reading alone – for the girls and my husband. Me, I’m usually still on the computer until late. That’s not giving me enough reading time, not just for me but for those watchful little eyes.
The Reading Is Fundamental website says, and I agree, “As much as they may deny it, most children want to be like their parents. Their lifelong habits start to form at the earliest ages, often by mimicking older members of the family. If they see you reading daily—both for function and for pleasure—they will more likely become avid readers themselves.”
I’d love my girls to say that they’re readers because I was a reader.
But enough about me, how about you? What’s your reading legacy?
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Melissa Taylor is a mom and educator from Denver who is passionate about playful learning. Thanks for visiting the site!
34 Comments
I’ve been thinking about this myself! Of course I read a lot to my kids during the day and at bedtime, but I rarely read for pleasure in front of my kids. I almost feel guilty, as if I’m sitting down to watch my TiVo recording of Grey’s Anatomy. In other words, I save those activities for “me time” after the kids go to bed. You’re right though, it is such powerful modeling! I love your family’s tradition, and I’d like to try it. Like you, I usually turn my kids over to Daddy after dinner. Maybe we could start with one “drop everything and read” family session each week. Thanks for motivating me!
Melissa…this is a good reminder. I’ve had a year of “need to read” reading. My goal is to read for pleasure more in front of the boys. I love hearing about your family tradition!
I loved that image of your mom on the bike, with a box o’ books strapped behind her! I still remember the day my mom got me my first library card… so exciting! We have books everywhere, and read to my son whenever we get a little time. In the evenings, between bath and bed, he gets to watch a little ‘quiet time’ of tv, and that’s when I pick up my book. He often stops watching, and we end up reading together. It’s my fave time of the day
Not only do I read in front of my boys, I talk about books all the time. I’ve been talking with friends about reading ‘the classics’. One friend has a 17 year old son who has complied an awesome list of books to read–many he already has and all are considered classics. Wow. I was impressed and humbled. I’ve started on his list. PS his mom and dad are big readers too.
My children and I read together from the time they were born through high school. We didn’t have as much time to read together when they got into high school but we still made it a special time, when we were out camping, came across a book we all wanted to read, or when we lost electricity. My oldest son got one of the highest score on his SAT tests that the school had ever had. They attributed much of it to his extensive vocabulary and I attributed it to all those hours spent reading aloud together.
Paula, I’ve really noticed that rich vocabulary building time reading Harry Potter to my second grader. It’s just above her reading level that there are a lot of unfamiliar words yet every time we read and talk, I know she’s just learned ten new words she wouldn’t have learned if she’d not read it with me. You are so right!
Lori, You’re my reading role model — are you going to post your list for us to see? (Please?)
Wendy, I love that you’re reading is encouraging him to read with you!
Hallie & Erin, we’re in this together. Let’s keep in touch with our new plans, failures and successes!
Thanks, friends,
Melissa
Can’t stress enough in my classroom, to parents of children of ALL ages, how important it is to continue to read aloud to them. Thanks for all you do!
My husband and I go through phases where we are reading in front of our children. We do read to them alot and recently they’ve been enjoying free reading time before bed where they read alone silently before I read to them. I’ve been thinking about having a family reading time where everyone stops and drops what they are doing and just reads. Maybe after dinner would be a good time for this. I’ve read that watching tv or being on the computer right before bed makes it difficult to sleep well, so the reading before bed instead would help with a more peaceful sleep time.
Just a thought or two. Great reminder about being role models and a reminder that we should make time for ourselves to enjoy books!
The more I talk with students the more I hear both explicitly and in subtle ways the effect of seeing admired adults (parents, relatives, friends) read for pleasure…sure makes me stop and think! Thanks for the RIF quote, too, Imagination Soup!
i was carried away by your opening images and your message here. i love reading the respopnses from others and you’ve have inspired me to reflect–my son, now a college student and older than the group you are addressing here– is an amazing reader and has been since he was very young. i began to think about our reading habits as he was growing up. there was lots of reading in our home –for work, school )both his and mine) and for pleasure–and usually multiple books simultaneously. he began to choose suprisingly high level books in upper elementary school and has always been drawn to fiction reading voraciously–whereas i have always focused more on nonfiction. what i know is that the invented stories told at bedtime, and reading aloud are still favroites of his–when he comes hoem from college he often wants to share passages aloud and he and his girilfriend enjoy reading aloud together. fun to see this love of reading continue!
I don’t have a set time of day to read. I carry a book with me every where I go so if I have time I read.
It has been soooo exciting to experience my children learning to read. When they were little we would have book parties, reading all the books we could! We still read a lot but there is always room for improvement and more books!
I definitely got my love of reading from my mother and the example she set. Thanks for the reminder that parents are setting an example in all of their daily activities and routines, and reading is an important activity that should be prioritized for ourselves AND for our children!
[...] Reading in Front of Watchful Eyes (and Giveaway) Imagination Soup, May 10 [...]
From a teacher who loves reading….remember that you are the role model for your children when it comes to reading! If they see you loving reading and actively reading, they will learn to love it, too! The earlier you start, the better it is, but it is NEVER too late to start. With younger children, share your favorite stories from your childhood. With your older children, read a book together and share your thoughts and feelings about it. Lastly, with junior high or high school students, have a book club and plan to read together and discuss once a week! Reading helps kids in so many areas and it needs to be a part of your lives!
I’m a teacher and I don’t have children of my own but I can’t wait for the day where I’ll be able to read to my own children and model for them at home. As a kid, my parents didn’t read much to me but they would tell me lots of stories about when they were young, the family, and their travels and I truly believe that this oral storytelling also influenced my love for reading in a major way. So remember that a love of stories can be developed in a myriad of ways. Don’t think you have time to sit and read to your child? Tell them a story about when you were young as you’re driving to the grocery store. Start a fictional story and have each person in the car add to it. Ask kids to give you the characters and the setting and you make up the story. This activity will also help opens children’s imagination when it come to writing. So happy reading and storytelling! =)
I tend to read at every free moment, but I’d say my biggest legacies are reading in the car and reading in the evenings instead of watching TV. My kids are on their own now and both are avid readers. I also share books freely. I tend to buy them and then pass them on, asking that the next reader pass them on again. As a teacher, I’m amazed at the power I have to help children love books. When I announce “Oh, this is my favorite book…” kids always remind me I say that almost every day. I know that if I share my love of books and tell the kids WHY they are my favorites, chances are the kids will love them, too.
My husband and I read quite a bit. We read to our children when they were babies. His voice and my voice contributed to their nightly readings.
Our nine-year-old daughter has been rereading her favorite book series The Lightning Thief. She bought all these books after the movie came out with her allowance. I love movies that have been made into books; Charlotte’s Web, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Babe, etc.
One thing that I love to do with her at this point in her young reading life is to buy books on audio. It takes us about 25 minutes to get to school and another lovely 25 minutes for the ride home. We are currently listening to The 39 Clues by Rick Riordan. We are really into this series! After we get to school and are walking in the building we share conversations like, “Wow, I can’t believe they got out of that cave!” or “I thought Alistair was on their side? I think he might be using them.” Sometimes when we arrive at school or home we sit in the car to listen to a few more lines of the story. Some other books we have listened to on audio are the Harry Potter series (very expensive, but I’d rather buy this than some expensive toy), The Secret Garden and yes, she has even listened to Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen! Talk about vocabulary building!
I have read to my children before they were born. Now I have two great readers! I read the Boxcar Children to both of them and my younger sister bought them both the Little House on the Prairie Books. Now they are grown, I still purchase picture books with special messages for them. My son once asked me why I kept buying him “baby books”. I replied, so you will have a collection of books to read to your children. Now that he is out on his own and planning a family of his own someday, he understands.
Wow, I’m so inspired by all that you all do for yourselves and your children! Thank you so much for sharing your stories.
Melissa
Great post. I enjoyed reading all the comments as well. I am a first grade teacher and I strongly believe in the importance of parents reading to their children, with their children, and in front of their children. I also have three young children of my own. Our house is full of books- there are books in every room of the house and we keep bringing in more. We all have our obessions, books are mine. Thanks to everyone who is helping nurture the love of reading in our children.
Wow, what a refreshing list of suggestions and experiences. It means much to me to find a community of like-minded people who value reading. My boys, 9 and 11, have been “have-to” readers for quite some time (a difficult thing for a writer to experience). But recently I reached my 9-year-old with a new approach. I love children’s books, so I’ve collected them over the years. A few weeks back, I went through those books and selected titles I thought might best resonate with my son. I then invited him to go through them with me, to select the ones he likes best. Once we had a small stack of about 7 or 8 books, we nudged clear a little space on one of my bookshelves, and labeled it “Garreth’s Future Reads”. It’s his own little library of sorts, and he is very enamored with it. It’s motivated him to read, and to ask me to find more books for him to consider. It does my heart good to see him curled up with a good book, and enjoying it.
Reading is very important in my house. I have always loved to read, and read as much as I possibly can. My two and a half year old can sit for an hour just looking at books by herself. We sit together and read books several times a day too. She is a mini me when it comes to reading my husband even says so. My eighteen month on the other hand I have been working with. It is very hard to get him to sit and look and books with me or by himself. He is a child that is on the go all the time and has to be interacting with things. I have found that he does better with books that have textures to feel and tabs to open or pull. Come into our house and you will find books in every room of the house. I just have to get better about rotating some of the books we have.
We read a couple of picture books together every afternoon before Sweet Pea takes her nap.
I totally agree with you. I recently joined a book club that is comprised of work colleagues. As I started doing more pleasure reading at home and turning off the TV to do so, my 9th grader became interested in reading more. She has been utilizing the library in town and is now doing more reading for pleasure as well. We often curl up together on my bed and read for about an hour in the evenings. She is always curious about what I’m reading and continues to read more herself. Children and teenagers really do want to imitate their parents. I’m really happy that my effort to set aside a little extra time for reading is setting a really good example for her, in addition to the pleasure I get after having read a really good book.
I read in front of my children as often as I can, which I do admit isn’t nearly as often as I would like. My favorite place to read is outside while enjoying the sun. Recently I have caught two of my daughters getting into the habit of laying out on the hammock with a book. Also, I am a writer. My kids tend to catch me writing more often than reading. This is a trait even my youngest (seven years old) is beginning to pick up on. I often catch him (and the rest) with a notebook and pencil, writing their own stories. Children definitely do mimic their parents.
I don’t have any children, but my mom was and still is a big reader while I was growing up. Most of the time, we now read different types of books. She reads more of the popular authors in either the romance or thriller type genres, while I have an M.A. in 19th C. British literature and read a lot in the YA genre. I really think that her influence of being a lifelong reader helped me to love reading. I can’t say that this effected everyone in my family though because my sister has only been a big reader since university, but it definitely effected me.
All of you should turn these into blog posts!! Thank you so much for sharing.
Congratulations to Cara, Random.org picked you as the winner of the book giveaway! Next, look for a giveaway of 1001 Children’s Books to Read Before You Die.
Melissa
[...] model reading in our own lives, the more our kids will value reading as well. We’re creating reading legacies! (NO [...]
[...] Reading In Front of Watchful Eyes [...]
[...] Reading In Front of Watchful Eyes [...]
[...] Reading In Front of Watchful Eyes [...]
[...] Reading in Front of Watchful Eyes [...]
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