10 Family Habits that Foster Lifelong Readers
A love of reading comes naturally for some kids and not-so-naturally for others, but you can do a lot to make your home a space where reading is an important part of everyday life.
1. Curate Book Baskets and Shelves
Especially for younger kids and reluctant readers, walking into a library or confronting a full bookshelf can be intimidating. A sparse bedroom shelf lined with books whose covers face out can help a child locate a book for independent reading time that matches up with that week’s interests. Curated book baskets are wonderful for giving kids choices within limits that help reading seem friendlier.
A few book basket ideas:
Teething-friendly books for the youngest readers
A selection of readers — any of which would work for your emergent or beginner reader’s current level
Books about trucks, puppies, bugs, or ponies — whatever your child’s current interest
A selection of books that fit bathroom reading criteria — books divided up into short selections that are funny or interesting (like comics)
A basket of WWII historical fiction choices to complement WWII history study
2. Never Leave without a Book
Richard Larson, a professor who studies queueing theory at MIT, says that the average person spends a cumulative 1 to 2 years of life waiting in lines. Startling statistics aside, I think we can all agree that we spend lots of time waiting — waiting at the dentist, waiting for takeout food, waiting in the car for a train to pass. Sure, that time could be spent playing Candy Crush or scrolling through Facebook (or picking a fight with your sibling), but wouldn’t it be better spent reading? Make it a rule that everybody leaves the house with something to read.
3. Celebrate with a Bookstore Visit
You may think I’m a monster, but I told my kids at the outset that there is no Tooth Fairy. Of course, they still want to cash in on their discarded teeth, though, so I like to offer them a trip to the used bookstore instead of money. While we’re there, I’ll offer to pay for a few 75 cent readers of their choosing. There are a million little things in life that we celebrate as families. It’s wonderful to attach some of those small celebrations to books.
4. Institute the Weekly Library Visit
Make Library Day a thing that happens every week on the same day. Not only will regularity make it a valuable part of the routine, but it will also help you stay out of trouble with overdue fines.
5. Subscribe to Magazines
We adults get inundated with mail, but getting mail is so special to kids. Tap into that feeling of specialness and create positive connotations with reading by getting a magazine subscription for each child.
6. Make Readaloud Time Part of the Routine
Readaloud time is one those things that’s easy to let slip past, so we need to build it into our daily routines. At our house, we have two read-aloud times. We start the school day with historical fiction related to our unit of study and read fiction that’s more focused on entertainment value at bedtime.
7. Make Independent Reading Time Part of the Routine
We all want our kids to spend time reading, but sometimes we forget to make time for it to happen. Just like read-aloud time, we have to make independent reading time a family norm that has its own space set aside in the day.
8. Listen to Audiobooks in the Car
I will admit that I resisted audiobooks for a long time. I didn’t have the right technology in my car, the library didn’t have the best selection, blah, blah, blah. I actually decided to suck it up and give audiobooks a try in the name of taming backseat squabbles. It worked to a degree I didn’t even imagine possible. Oh, and now we’re all digesting about two more quality books per month than we used to. Seriously, try audiobooks even if only for the peaceful car rides.
9. Read and Talk about Reading
This is directed toward the adults. If you want your kids to believe that reading is important and worthwhile, you have to model it. Make sure that kids have opportunities to see respected adults of both genders reading and valuing reading.
10. Geek Out as a Family about a Story
Later this summer, we’re (finally) visiting The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Obviously, the day at the theme park will be magical in all senses of the word, but leading up to it, we are having so much fun immersing ourselves in the story together by reading the beautiful illustrated editions of the books, coloring Harry Potter coloring books, crafting wands out of mismatched chopsticks, watching the movies, and assembling Harry Potter jigsaw puzzles. Geeking out over a story as a family goes beyond just telling your kids that reading is important. It shows them that the world of the imagination is important, that reading is cool, that they can get lost in stories even when they grow up, too.
This is the curriculum for you if:
You’re a little nervous-cited about homeschooling middle and high school.
You’re looking for decolonized secular homeschool curriculum and resources.
You don’t want to lose the homeschool magic just because you’re in the homeschool home stretch.
What you’ll find inside:
Files: Reading Guide, How to Read a Book, Writing a Compare/Contrast Essay
6-week reading plan with discussion questions and activities
Introduction to mystery novels, including literary terms you should know
End-of-book discussion questions
Final project guide
Resources for further study
What you’ll need to provide:
Book: And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
Movies: Glass Onion (2022), Murder on the Orient Express (2017)
Credit recommendation: 0.25 literature credit
Placement recommendation: This is designed as a rigorous reading guide for high school students. While most books can be a fun study for students of all ages, this unit asks students to use critical reading and thinking skills that most students won’t be ready to flex this way until late middle school or high school. Ideally, students should have some familiarity with annotated reading, textual analysis, and writing about literature going into this unit.
For secular homeschoolers who want a fun, decolonized, rigorous way to homeschool high school and middle school, home/school/life’s Deep Thought is the progressive high school curriculum that does the academic heavy lifting so that you can enjoy the fun stuff. Unlike other high school curriculum, home/school/life’s Deep Thought curriculum teaches students how to learn, not just what to learn and makes big academics surprisingly fun for the whole family.
All curriculum materials are digital and downloadable. Because of this, all sales are final. If you have questions, please ask before you buy.