Guest Author - Terrie Lynn Bittner

The more a child is read to, the more he's going to be excited about learning to read on his own. Even a child who reads well should be read to regularly, so you can model good reading skills and expose him to books beyond his reading abilities. In addition, reading together is a great way to build traditions, shared knowledge, and closeness.

Reading as a family should never be a stressful time with dozens of rules. If your children can sit quietly in your arms as you read, that's wonderful. If they are wiggly and restless, let them play quietly as you read from a chapter book. Even though they may appear to be distracted, you'll discover even children seemingly too young for the book you're reading will pick up pieces of the story. Don't forget to include some scripture stories in your reading time.

In our family, story time happened several times a day, rather than just at bedtime. We wanted our children to be unable to imagine a day without lots of books. We often read in the afternoon, and even slipped in a story before school if all went well. When we homeschooled, every school day ended with stories. Each child selected a picture book and we finished off with a chapter in whatever novel we were currently reading. We began with the youngest child's story and each child listened to as many stories as his attention span could handle. When he was tired of sitting quietly, he could color or play with building blocks or other quiet toys, as long as he stayed in the room and didn't bother the listeners. Over time, they learned to stay through the entire reading session. When we finished the chapter, the children drew a picture from the reading, and we soon discovered that even the little children had listened well enough to draw something. Often, their pictures showed surprising comprehension of difficult material.

Children should begin listening to chapter books at least one year before starting to read them in school. You can easily introduce carefully chosen books by age four if you don't expect them to listen quietly to an entire chapter at first. The Paddington and Winnie-the-Pooh chapter books are good starters, as are Beverly Cleary's books. These stories appeal to small children. Children must learn to visualize a story in their mind and listen to stories without words before they're able to read a book without pictures. Bedtime is a good time to introduce the first chapter books. We read this last, and at first the children fell asleep during the chapter. Later, they stayed awake to hear the end. During the day, our younger children generally played as they listened. We didn't quiz them or scold them for not listening. We just read and they listened when they were ready and for as long as they were ready.

Select a regular spot for reading to help build a reading tradition. However, sometimes vary the location. Most children enjoy being read to outside. Some children prefer to hang upside down from the sofa or sit in a giant chair where they can swing their legs. Since we were never very conventional about household decorations, we sometimes put up a blanket tent in the living room and read inside. This was particularly effective for pioneer stories.

The only real rule for family reading is to make sure you all have fun. Don't test and don't scold, except to insist children remain quiet so as not to bother the listeners. Remember as you read that you are making memories.