Reading is one of the most important life skills. For some, it comes after years of struggling. Others seem to pick it up almost overnight, with little instruction. It’s one of the first major educational hurdles for everyone, and critical for later success—in academia and in life. Reading assists in expanding vocabulary, getting exposure to new topics and ideas, relaying knowledge, and increasing comprehension of the world around you. Plus, it’s just fun!

How do you build this lifestyle of reading? Here are 18 tips for nurturing a lifelong love of the written word.

1. You read! Let the kids catch you reading. Read for knowledge, and read for pleasure. Put the phone down and read while you’re waiting in line, before you go to bed, and when you have your morning coffee.
2. Keep a variety of books around, at kid-eye-level. Spread a few around on side tables or night stands. Keep some in the car.
3. Limit TV and other electronic devices. Given the chance, most kids will reach for an iPad rather than a book. Families are bombarded with the constant visual instant gratification of electronics. Set playing/viewing guidelines, and keep those devices inaccessible the rest of the time. (This encourages kids to GO OUTSIDE more, too, which is a different post for a different day.)
4. Read together: aloud as a family, or separately in the same room. I remember many winter days as a child, curled up with hot chocolate and a blanket, all of us spread through the living room reading, while the fire crackled nearby.
5. Try using audio books, and following along with a hard copy. This is especially fun for younger kids, to hear the various voices and view the pictures while they listen.
6. Read a family book, and then watch a film adaptation of the book together. You could even incorporate foods from the book, and make a special event of it. An elaborate tea party when you finish Alice in Wonderland? Perfect!
7. Make a book tent. Or create a reading closet, blanket fort, or other nook specifically for reading. Sometimes a creative change of venue is all that’s needed to entice kids to read longer.
8. Put it on the schedule. Dinner is on the daily schedule, as well as showering, and some electronic time, so why not add reading, too? We do “free” reading at 3pm every day – it’s just a time to relax, set the academic books aside, and grab whatever interests them. Calvin & Hobbes? Sure!
9. Have a 100 Books Party. Keep track of the books they read, in a journal, and have a mini party, complete with book-reading-celebration cake, every time someone hits 100.
10. Go to the library regularly and let the kids pick out books about anything they want. This is how my oldest son discovered, and fell in love with, books by Gary Paulsen and Will Hobbs. Kids who find what they enjoy reading will read more! There’s also a direct correlation between reading for pleasure and higher scores in school.
11. Consider supplementing your kids’ book spending, or giving a specific book allowance. We regularly shop at a local used bookstore (where my daughter is employed), and we pay for half of every book they pick out.
12. Reread your favorites! I’m sure I read Slinky Malinky a hundred times when it was my son’s favorite.  It works for adult books, too; if you love it, don’t neglect it. A second or third pass is often just as enjoyable.
    

    “Clearly one must read every good book at least once every ten years.” C.S.Lewis

13. Encourage kids to write and illustrate their own stories. We’ve done this for years, through our homeschool group’s Young Authors program, but it’s easy enough to do at home.
14. Pick up books about current events, an upcoming vacation destination, or a new pet.  Relate it back to life.  Gain knowledge and information from those who have gone before you.
15. Try a book with a totally different perspective. Get into the lives of people who live in different cultures and different time periods. Let the kids dress like the characters, or act it out.
    

    “For one who reads, there is no limit to the number of lives that may be lived, for fiction, biography, and history offer an inexhaustible number of lives in many parts of the world, in all periods of time.” Louis L’Amour

16. Pass it back and forth: you read a chapter, then pass it to your child to read the next chapter, taking turns.
17. Encourage reading with special fun gadgets. My daughter loves her cute little book clip lamp, and often reads in the backseat of the car, at night, using that gizmo.
18. Write and illustrate funny stories for them. When my kids were first learning to read, I’d make little books of simple stories about them, our pets, and family members. I simply took a few pages of white copy paper, cut them into fourths, stapled them together, and wrote out my story. “Isabelle can jump over the red dog,” for example. Stick figures are perfectly adequate here! You’re just getting the kids interested in a funny story about themselves.

However you decide to go about it, nurturing a reading lifestyle is worthwhile!

“No matter what his rank or position may be, the lover of books is the richest and the happiest of the children of men.” J.A.Langford