Seven Habits Series – Habit #1
Hello, this is Brian with Childrensbookstore.com. If this blog post is not here next week it is because Stephen Covey, creator of the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People brand, effectively convinced me that my new Seven Habits of Highly Literate Kids blog series is a direct copyright infringment. I’m sure he’d be right, but it’s a really catchy concept and I can’t see myself one-upping it. For this series, I’ll post one habit a week for seven weeks. So, let the series begin.
Habit #1: Create a habit. Habit #1 is to set a habit? Brilliant and revalatory, I know. Let me explain. Set a time (or times) each day when you will read to your children.
My wife and I will typically ready books to our 2 year old before nap and before bed time. We try to end each reading session with a book about bed time, such as “Goodnight Moon” by Margaret Wise Brown or “Night-Night, Little Pookie” by Sandra Boynton. Before my wife and I go to bed at night, we sneak books into his crib so that when he wakes up in the morning he can rummage through four or five books before he starts screaming Mama or Dada.
He has become accustomed to having book time at these three times each day; twice with us and once by himself. Confession: my wife and I started putting books in his bed so that we could get a few more minutes of sleep each morning…AND IT WORKS! He flips through his books for a solid 20 minutes or so every morning. Don’t judge, it’s not like we put video games in his bed…
Our five year old is super fun to read with these days. Her kindred spirit is Fancy Nancy, so naturally she loves that series. I like the Fancy Nancy books because they intentionally stretch children’s vocabulary with new, more complex words. Anyway, with Emily, we make sure to read at least every night at bed time. That is the habit. We will occassionaly read through out the day sporatically, but the habit with her is to read a hand full of books each night before bed time. I try to keep it at three books, but she always negotiates for more. Always. Just like her mom…
Thanks for reading. I’ll be back next week with Habit #2.
Brian