My daughter loves to read and is a fairly advanced reader for her age. She was reading Magic Tree House books out loud to me by the time she started Kindergarten. We used to read nightly at bedtime, but when she started school we never seemed to have enough time. She was always looking at books, so I never worried about the reading time. However, in February I noticed that she was not reading stories. She loves the Fact Trackers that accompany many Magic Treehouse books. She also loves reading the Star Wars reference books - Visual Dictionaries, Character Encyclopedias, etc. But, she was never reading chapter books. She was reading books that she could flip through and read a page that interested her, but she was not reading a book start to finish.
Over her mid-winter break in February, I instituted a "Family Reading Time" of 15-20 minutes per day. We both go into the reading room and each read a book. I do require her book to be a book with a story and not a research guide. I am an ebook reader and usually use my phone instead of my Kindle. However, I try to remember to have my Kindle charged and available to use during reading time so I am not distracted by e-mails, texts, Facebook, etc. We also retreat to our "reading room", a sitting room off of the master bedroom. Having a dedicated reading area also cuts down on the distractions.
Family Reading Time is going well. She is engaged in her books and we have even started reading a book together at bedtime that is a little too difficult for her to read on her own during family reading time. Last week she spent an afternoon with her grandparents after school and insisted on bringing a book and doing Family Reading Time with Grandma. We did skip Family Reading Time when we were on vacation and we have skipped an occasional day when we are too busy. But, overall we are doing much more reading. My daughter is still doing her reading of the "fact books", but is also reading chapter books.
What about your house? How do you encourage Family Reading Time?
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