I love to read, but I didn’t always feel this way! Growing up I read some, but couldn’t get lost in books. It wasn’t until college that I found a true passion for reading. I then learned how to speed read and today, well, I can’t keep enough books on hand.
It was a habit I formed in college, reading for both pleasure and information. Reading is sometimes seen as lazy or frivolous. Something to only be done on vacation or before bed. I do not believe that, nor do I want my children feeling that way, so this year we are tracking quiet family reading time.
The last three years we’ve tracked our outdoor time (thanks 1000 Hours Outdoors). Tracking these hours was great to form solid outdoor habits, so we are changing what we track from outdoor hours to quiet reading time.
I always keep a rather informal reading log, but now that I have a house full of readers I want to encourage quiet reading around the house throughout the day.
It isn’t so much about hitting an insane amount of hours or days, but forming a habit of reading for pleasure (or information- I have some kiddos who love facts) on a regular basis. We, like most of you, are already reading for language arts and other content areas, but this is addition to that. An extra 15 or more minutes. Our goal will be to read a few times a week silently, but together. I’ve already done this some with my children, but not daily.
We do daily read alouds, audiobooks, and I do paired and shared reading with all of them one-on-one, but I want the habit of us all in a room with no TV or noise. Just the sound of pages turning (or my Kindle button clicking). We have a screened in porch now and I have a feeling this will be our favorite place to read.
We also bring books when we adventure to coffee shops, waiting in the car for pick ups, when we visit places like Mount Vernon.
So, this year we will continue to live 1000 hours (or more) outside, but we will track focusing on tracking our reading to solidify a new habit.
I just cannot track that many things at once y’all. I don’t have it in me. ;)
If you want to begin the habit of quiet reading as a family (or tracking your read aloud and audiobook days), then grab my free printable by clicking the image above! There are 60 books to color in! Finish those 60 days? Print a second or even a third! Our family goal is to read quietly, together two to three times per week.
Happy reading!
Jenna
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