One of my goals recently has been to get in more daily reading time with the kids. I thought I’d share how I am sneaking in more reading time each day and also share some of the things we are reading!
Read at Breakfast
This is probably the easiest way to get in more reading time. I started a long time ago doing some reading aloud at breakfast. I am up a lot earlier than the kids, so I usually make myself some breakfast and eat before they get up. That way I am free to read while they are eating their breakfast!
While I have continued through the years with reading at breakfast, we have fluctuated what we read and how much we read. I used to just read a chapter out of a devotional book every morning at breakfast. Then one year I found the Child’s Story Bible at a second hand book store and absolutely fell in love with it! That is our staple now at breakfast. So my plan is to read one story out of the Child’s Story Bible, a devotional out of a devotional book, and a chapter out of a literature book. The kids have really enjoyed adding a fun literature book to our morning reading time and I look forward to continuing this. Yes, it does make breakfast a little longer, but I figure that you can’t go wrong reading aloud to the kids. Ever!
Here are the books we are reading now at breakfast:
- Bible story: Child’s Story Bible
- Devotional: Courageous Christians
- Literature: Charlotte’s Web
Read Individually With Each Child
Recently I started allowing my younger children to select a book for me to read to them alone. What I usually do is after they have read to me for a bit to get their reading practice, then I read a chapter to them out of the book they have selected. It’s funny, but most of the time my younger three end up listening in to each other’s books. I love it because then they all are getting in more reading aloud time and they also get the fun of selecting the book to be read.
Here are the books we are reading now:
Read Aloud Time in the Afternoon
I have shared this many times before, but we always have a read aloud time in the afternoon for 45 minutes to 1 hour. The books we read during this time are mostly history based — biographies, historical fiction, and some non-fiction. Sometimes we take a break from history and read a good literature book.
Here is what we are reading now:
Make Reading a Part of Your Daily Life
While we will be taking a break from formal homeschool for the summer, we will be continuing our reading times — both having the kids read to me and read alone, and our read aloud times together at breakfast and in the afternoon. These are parts of our days that hardly ever change.
If you want to sneak in more reading time with your kids, try some of these ideas. They won’t all work for everyone, but give some things a try and see what works for you. Believe me, you can never go wrong with reading great books to your kids! If you need help determine what “great” books are, take a look at these resources to help you out.
Happy reading!
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