How long should our reading time be?

Whatever works for your family.

How many books should we read?

Whatever works for your family.

When should we try to fit this into our schedule?

Whenever works!

If you’re trying to establish a reading routine with your kiddoes, take baby steps and make it simple.  Literally, start with ONE BOOK.  You may decide that this works best after dinner or at bedtime, or another time.   Hopefully, once a simple routine is established, both you and your kids will look forward to it, and it will naturally grow into two or three stories…. and eventually into chapter books where the kids are reading independently.

Five minutes may be all you have and all you need some days.  That’s realistic and that’s fine!  Have you heard the saying “Quality not quantity is what counts”?  Those five minutes of reading/talking time with our little ones may overshadow endless hours of screen time.  I also think we don’t need to feel guilty if we miss a day or days – life can get crazy.   We need to give ourselves some grace and work our way back into healthy routines.

I know I’m old-school, but I spent enough time in the classroom to know that our kids NEED time away from technology and that they NEED to read/process/imagine in their own minds.  Before I retired, and this is the honest truth, when I asked my students to close their laptops and told them that I was going to read to them, they were GLAD.  When I told them that we were going to write on real paper and draw about what we read, they were EXCITED.

Build a little reading time in your daily routine.  Individualize it, make it fun, peaceful and mandatory.  Select content that speaks to their hearts and points them to Jesus. Decide as a family how and when to Book Time Together.  Let your littles have input too, and make whatever works, WORK!  

Deuteronomy 6:6-9
These words I am commanding you today are to be upon your hearts. / And you shall teach them diligently to your children and speak of them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. / Tie them as reminders on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. ...

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