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-I can’t imagine a man really enjoying a book and reading it only once. –C.S. Lewis

Beginning a routine of reading to your children can have many benefits. Reading to your children from early on in their life creates the love of reading, but the love for reading can begin anytime.

When I had my first child I couldn’t wait to read to him and already had a small library of books started. Nothing can replace the sweet connection you make with your child while holding them in your lap reading them a story. They experience what it feels like to be loved and safe and you create some great memories. When I had my second baby, not only did I have the connection of reading to him but many times while the baby would be sitting in the swing his four year old brother would sit next to him and read him a book.

Some of the first books we read were:

1. Goodnight Moon
2. Just In Case You Ever Wonder
3. Are You My Mother?
4. Guess How Much I Love You
5. The Very Hungry Caterpillar
6. Moo, Baa, La, La, La! (This one made them laugh hysterically)
7. Dr. Seuss (too many to list them all)

I read a great article recently at The Literacy Site; about the importance of reading to young children and how the simple structure of picture books is exposing them to more words than simply talking to them and this is doing something important for children.

As my boys got older and began reading, story time changed and we would all take turns reading. This helped them get the practice they needed to learn reading in a safe atmosphere. They didn’t have to worry about making mistakes and it gave them the confidence to read out loud in class when they began school.

Reading introduces children to new people and worlds and exploring their imagination. When we read we would use different voices for each character and bring ourselves into the story with our imagination. Stories can help teach: patience, generosity, love, understanding differences, and sometimes help with solutions to real life problems. Reading teaches children that anything is possible.

As my kid’s got older, I was able to read some of my favorites from when I was younger. We read Judy Blume, Beverly Cleary, and C.S. Lewis. We read old classics and new discoveries, they found out: How to Eat Fried Worms, and what happens when you drink Freckle Juice. Some of their favorites as they read included:

1. Geronimo Stilton
2. A to Z Mysteries
3. Magic Treehouse Books
4. Diary of a Wimpy Kid series
5. All of the Rick Riordan series
6. The 39 Clues

Above all else it is important to them. I have a thirteen year old now and even though he is venturing off into his own independent world, at night before bed he will still ask me, “Are we going to read tonight?”

So my challenge for you is: start a tradition and even if you begin with a couple nights during the week, pick a fun book and pile on a bed or the couch with your children and read. You will never have more fun! What were some of your favorite books when you were younger?

My love of books began as soon as I could read and after I began reading my love for books only continued to grow. I don’t have a lot of childhood memories, that I can remember, but I vividly remember the library bookmobile that would come to our neighborhood. I was five years old and in Kindergarten and a visit from the bookmobile was the highlight of the week. To me the bookmobile was a magical place where I was able to choose as many books as I wanted and could read between visits.

Some of my favorite books through the years of growing up were:

1. Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret. –Judy Blume
2. Many other books by Judy Blume
3. Beezus and Ramona –Beverly Cleary
4. Dreams Of Victory –Ellen Conford
5. The Sisters Impossible –J.D. Landis
6. Sweet Valley High mysteries -Francine Pascal
7. Light A Single Candle –Beverly Butler

I think I was eight years old when I decided I wanted to be a writer. I strayed from that for a short time trying to go for what appeared to many others as a “stable or practical” career, but realized the path for me was writing.

     -There are perhaps no days of our childhood we lived so fully as those we spent with a favorite book. –Marcel Proust

Books have always been a way to help me through life, when I am worried, upset, or stressed, a walk through a library or bookstore calms me down. Through reading the imagination grows and you believe anything is possible.

     -A book is a device to Ignite the Imagination. –Alan Bennett

It was important to me to begin reading to my boys when I had kids. I remember holding both of my kids and reading to them by the time they were six months old. They had no clue what I was talking about but by doing this I introduced the love of books to my boys and started a new generation of reader’s(Reeder’s). I didn’t want them to miss out on the importance and magic, reading can bring to people. How else can you be whisked away to New York in the 1920’s and drink with Jay Gatsby, or travel a train in Russia and cry with Anna Karenina, solve a murder with Philip Marlowe a private detective in 1950’s Los Angeles, or laugh at the bumbling of an amateur bounty hunter like Stephanie Plum in New Jersey, and all from the comfort of your favorite reading spot.

-Anyone who says they have only one life to live must not know how to read a book.          –Author Unknown