Raising young readers
I don't write about this from a place of expertise more from a place of wishing, longing & hoping. I know that most things that are modelled are copied, even reading!
I don't read very much but I'd like to & I'd really like for our children to enjoy reading. I was talking about how I don't read very much with my sister-in-law, an avid reader & we think we've found the reason...I'm not very good at choosing books, I haven't found my genre. For a woman in her 30's I do enjoy an easy read, something from the teen fiction section would do me just fine {don't judge me} but in recent times I've always felt that that time spent with my nose in something like that has been a waste of my time {which is a contradicting though given the amount of time I spend doing unproductive things like scrolling the internet on my phone}. I've felt like I should be reading something that is going to improve my life, perhaps topics like parenting or business but it doesn't need to be like that & so I've struck a deal with myself - I will find books I enjoy & read them without any guilt but as a compromise I will also read a second book or listen to a podcast on the other subjects.
The boys school doesn't send homework home, research has shown it be not very effective, instead they encourage family dinners at the dinner table & reading a book each evening. I've always read to the boys before bed & they are heartbroken if its gotten a little too late to start a book some evenings. Eli is given 30 minutes to read before bed but he'll almost always choose to go to sleep than read. I rotate the books in our home to keep them fresh. We gift the boys a book each birthday & at Christmas. We've dabbled with listening to audiobooks on the school run & so on & so forth but a love for reading hasn't landed.
I found Janssen on Instagram, once a children's librarian who loves nothing more than finding the perfect book, one that keeps you up all night long because you just can't but it down {I can binge watch a Netflix series in this way so I'm dying to replace it with books}. Janssen has created a free course, Raising Readers that I've just signed up to, packed with tips & ideas that can be implemented right away to help our children love reading, you should join & do it with me!
I've heard of people reading the Harry Potter series over & over again but because I've never read it I cannot relate but I did pack the Philosophers Stone into the campervan & I plan on reading it each night before bed - I'll report back how that goes. It's our first night at a campground tonight {we've just had 3 nights with my dad in Napier & slept inside, such slickers} & the weather has been forecast as fine - hallelujah.
Here at LMB we're slowly growing our book collection, I appreciate sometimes it is frustrating that books go out of stock quickly - I wish I could hold & store 30 copies of each title so that never happened but money doesn't grow on trees! A large portion of our books come from Australia via boat & we all know about the port situation right now so make good use of the "back in stock" feature on we have on each product listing for all the books that sadly say "sold out" & you'll be notified the second something is restocked. More are on their way!