Don't disturb me when I'm reading!

by Michelle
(New Zealand)

Michelle's youngest son reading his latest favourite book.

My three boys, aged nine, 11 and 13, are all avid readers.

From a very early age I read to each one of them, separately, before bed. They always got to choose the book (there were MANY repeats!) and I made sure it was always a positive, special time, even if it was only 5 minutes.

This ritual continues to be sacred in our house. No one would dream of interrupting reading time unless the house was on fire. And even though he reads independently at every opportunity, my nine-year-old still insists on a story every night!

******************

Hi Michelle,

Thanks so much for your tips.

I love that you read to each of your boys separately and that you made it a special time for each of them.

When you have more than one child, one-to-one time becomes so precious, doesn't it? It can be really hard to co-ordinate special reading time together but it's so worth doing. Your boys will have such lovely memories of their special time reading with mum and it's obviously paid off because they all love to read.

And how lovely that your nine-year-old still likes to snuggle up for a story. We sometimes think that reading aloud should stop when a child can read independently but there's actually really good reasons why parents should keep reading to older kids.

Thanks for the tips and for telling us about your family.

Happy reading!

Felicity