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We all want to raise readers, so … what’s the secret? Reading is the gateway to so many opportunities that we hope for our littles. Reading can look different day to day and home to home. Littles and bigs don’t have to be still to engage in reading. They don’t have to do the reading to be “reading.” Looking at pictures, touching textures on a page, turning pages, listening to someone read a book, reading signs on the street, looking at maps at the zoo are all examples of ways that we engage our children in reading from a very young age. It is never too early to start a love for literacy! The secret to raising readers is to be readers ourselves … model for our children what this looks like and place value on it.
Wall Street Journal author Meghan Cox Gurdon states that reading to and with your children will help them be smarter, happier and healthier, more successful and more connected. When you think about what you want for your children I am certain it falls into one if not all of those categories.
Reading aloud builds a child’s desire to read. When we surround our children with literature and we model reading they are naturally drawn to books. When we model reading over screen time and we leave the screens for adults after our children are in bed our children naturally see the importance of books and the need for them. Who’s toddler asks approximately 356 questions a day?! I currently have two at this stage so that’s approximately 802 questions a day! My answer 80% of the time is, “We should find a book about it and do some research!”
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Children spend more time at home annually than they do at school. Research shows that most children’s interest in reading books outside school decreases steadily from Kindergarten to 12th grade - what is the common denominator? Their parents stopped reading aloud to them. So how do we counteract this? Fill our space with books, don’t force our littles to read, model reading and watch as our littles increasingly become interested in opening those books and turning the pages!
In the Craig house, we have books in the bathroom, books in bedrooms, books in the car, books in the library, books in the playroom, books by the couch, books in the kitchen, books in our diaper bag, books, books, books! All three of our boys love to read. They read about different things, at different times and in different ways, but they all love reading and I want to help you build that culture in your family.
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I have linked books to each week's theme unit, but it is not an exhaustive list. This is just a start to the books that would pair perfectly with each weekly unit. You can find more at your local library, there are great read-alouds on YouTube and if you are looking to build your home library for little to no cost, look no further. I am a brand ambassador for PaperPie, and will be happy to help you fill your bookcases with amazing books.
You can purchase many of the suggested titles in our weekly guides here:
You can also partner with me to earn tons of free books plus commission, all while helping spread a love for literacy. Want to learn more about joining my team and building an in home library?
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