Teaching & Cultivating a Love of Reading 3

For this post I'm answering some of the many questions I get, so lets dive in!

1. Do you assign reading, or just hope that your children will choose to read? 

Well, it has been both. In past years when I had all of my children at home reading aloud was definitely the bread and butter of how I homeschooled, it still is. And that is also a very effective way to grow a love of books and reading in your children. I think I relied on that alone to stir a personal love of reading in my children, and in hind sight now I would have chosen to add in a few more strategies that would have helped support that. When my kids had free time they almost always chose to do other things, mostly that meant some adventure outside (spurred on perhaps by the adventures they were hearing from our current read aloud?) And that is so ok, it's more than ok! The goal is not to raise bookworms just so you can say you have a bookworm. Sometimes I think we can put how much our children read on a very high pedestal in the homeschool community, which can make some mothers feel like they are failing if their child is not an avid reader. There are certainly other very worthwhile pursuits in life and reading is only one of them. 

My grown children are not the type of readers that always have a novel or some great work of literature going. However, they all have a love of excellent language, beautiful and unique ideas, very creative imaginations and skills, and a constant desire to keep learning and self improve. Audio books have become one of their great resources. As a mama that's something to be proud of! I share that not to pat myself on the back, but to hopefully encourage you that many excellent qualities can come out of a home life that values books.

With that said, here are a couple of things that I'm doing now to help keep that foundation firm. Not because raising a bookworm ;) is the goal, but because the qualities above are a tresured prize too. A culture of great books loved and read in the home is one of your very best tools for raising and schooling your children!

a. As a busy mama to 5, time to read personally seemed like an activity for only the rich and famous. But even just grabbing a quick 5 or 10 min. to read consistently would have set an example over time for my kids. Nowadays, Noah sees me reading quite a bit and we make time to sit and read quietly together. Often it's about 30 min. before bedtime with a cup of tea to help wind down from the day. 

b. During the school year, I assign 30 min. of reading each day. Some will say that requiring your child to read will rob them of the natural love that you want them to have for reading on their own. I don't doubt that that's a possibility and we should be discerning as parents with each individual child. Even though Noah has grown up being read to almost daily (and has always enjoyed it), along with other "book loving" habits, I wasn't seeing him choosing to read on his own. My plan was simple: gather a pile of quality books that he could choose from. Sometimes they connected with what we were learning about, and other times not. 30 min. of required reading is so minimal--I didn't feel that it would damage a natural love of reading, on the contrary it has had the opposite of effect. I believed that if he got a taste of a really good story, he would want more. And sure enough many times throughout the school year I found him reading far past the 30 min. I asked for, and picking up the book many times throughout the day. He was hooked. Some books fall flat, but I don't let that discourage me. I just keep searching and hunting and soon enough we hit on another winner. I don't schedule a certain amount of books to be read each year--by him alone or by me reading aloud. I just keep the flow steady, sometimes it moves quick and other times more slowly.

c. Charlotte Mason called certain types of books "twaddle". Books that could be described as weak, second-rate, and easy reading among other things. I'm positive she would have raised a concerned brow upon the Hardy Boys mystery series that I let Noah read. But in my defense I will say that allowing him to do that was one of the best decisions ever. And one that looking back now, I wish I had allowed with my other children. I was so afraid of twaddle then, but I have come to see that it can have a small and positive place in your child's life. Noah loved the Hardy Boys. He tore through one book after another. It was fun and easy reading for him and I felt that it was a good game plan to let him have a break from the more hefty literature that I was always sending his way. Sometimes it was work for him to get through the other books he was reading, even if he was loving the story. For him, a little season of twaddle kept the joy in reading and I really feel that it helped in some way to develop the habit of reading that he has today. If you might like this approach too, I would say that you should choose your twaddle wisely (haha, if Charlotte could hear me now) You need to screen them just as you would any other book. I always searched out the Hardy Boys copies that had the vintage cover designs, for instance. The newer publications had a more modern "teenage-y" look to me which I didn't like. Subject matter that doesn't veer too far from your personal values is of course super important as well.