✨My 11-Year-Old Reads 100s of Books a Year
Tips to Create a Culture of Family Reading
✨It’s not an exaggeration to say my 11-year-old reads hundreds of books a year.
She loves books. I mean, LOVES them. Usually, there are 4 or 5 tucked in her bed. She carries books everywhere we go, re-reads her favorites, and even uses them as rewards for hard work. I could go on, but I’d rather you hear it from her. I start every clip with my kids’ laughter so enjoy👇
What you wouldn’t guess?
Five years ago, she hated reading.
At school, it was their only complaint. “She’s academically strong, but won’t read.” After we started homeschooling, we faced the same challenge. I’d get age appropriate books, stories everyone’s kid loved. She’d start but never finish. She just wasn’t interested.
What did we do?
We pulled back. We started reading to her. For months, I’d read my girls to sleep every night. We read all sort of stories, but I’ll never forget the one that changed everything.
Stick Cat (affiliate link - but usually available at libraries). It’s unassuming, it’s not a classic, but it’s adorable, funny, and most importantly every chapter ends in a cliff-hanger. For several nights in a row, she grew increasingly irritated that the chapter clipped off in the middle. Then, I heard the sweetest words, “Can I read ahead?”
I gave her the book and the rest is history. Since then, she has read herself to sleep every night.
The truth is: learning to love reading doesn’t start with ABCs, phonics, or even with our children.
It starts with us—the way we live, talk, and share stories.
🔥BUT, there’s a big difference between sparking a love of reading and sustaining it into the love you hear in my 11 year-olds voice above.
To sustain a love of reading, you must create a culture of reading in your home, and that’s what we’ll talk about today.
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