New Routines: Reading Hour

A new school year beckons new routines. I like routines, especially creating new ones. I am trying very hard to not impose my routines on my children. And I am also trying to invite, inspire, sometimes require that we situate some healthy habits for our children around formal learning in addition to the gobs of informal, deeply relevant learning that happens with them all the time. 

My new routine for our 7 year-old is the Reading Hour. Right after dinner, he snuggles onto the couch and grabs a book. I do the same with the little one and we read. When the little fellow is done with his handful of board books, I take him to bed, the 7 year-old reads on. 

The significance of reading has been stated and re-stated. Yes, I get that it grows a well-read human being, empowers a child to know how to learn, on and on but what really got me jazzed about Reading Hour was a very ulterior motive. My 7 year-old asks questions incessantly and hence talks incessantly. I love talking to him and I also hope that I don't have to listen to two talkative children all day long in the near future. How about if one can read to find answers to his questions instead of asking me so many questions? So, how about Reading Hour?

The trick was finding a way to inspire the 7 year-old to settle down to read for an hour? I did not have any amazing tricks on hand. Its well-known that up to a certainly point, children learn to read and after that they read to learn. I figured I could just share this simple idea with my 7 year-old. I invited him to consider how he spent much time as a one year-old learning to walk and after some point he walked to get to places, to do other things. It is the same with reading. So far this simple explanation seems to have worked.

So now we have an hour of reading, reading not connected with school, reading for all members of the family. All of us settle down and start reading. I have to break my reading up to put the little one to sleep but the rest continue on. Two weeks in, the 7 year-old runs over to the couch, settles down and reads ceasely for an hour. I know this won't last for long. There may come a time when he might break out of the habit. If and when that happens, I hope its not for long and that the sweet memories of settling onto a cozy couch with the light of the setting sun will bring him back to his books.