Reading: A Great Family Pastime

When my daughters were toddlers, we used to read to them every night before they went to bed. But now that they are older (they are both 7) and can read on their own, our bedtime reading routine has fallen by the wayside.

My daughters have recently mentioned, however, that they miss our nightly reading sessions, so I hope to revive the routine. I recently read a terrific interview in Scholastic’s Parent & Child magazine about one of my favorite actresses, Felicity Huffman – she plays an overworked, no-nonsense mom on the popular ABC television series, Desperate Housewives.

In the article, Huffman shares that one of her family’s favorite activities is reading together, and that she’s read all the Laura Ingalls Wilder books, all the Harry Potter books and The Golden Compass with her daughters, ages 8 and 10.  In fact, when her kids were younger, she sewed gigantic reading pillows for everyone to lounge on when reading together. ( for my kids is something close to my heart.)

When I was young, my dad read all the Little House books to my sister and me, and our evenings reading together is a treasured memory. I’ve always thought that it’d be nice to purchase the books and share them with my children. I also remember my dad reading J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit to us.

I think reading aloud to one’s kids (or taking turns reading aloud) is a terrific way to expand kids’ literary interests and to make them more comfortable with reading. Reading together might also be a terrific way to tear kids away from the TV, Wii or Nintendo DS.

After a little searching online, I found a list of family read-aloud books at readaloudamerica.org. I especially liked the books in their “Ageless Read Aloud” section, titles like Little House on the Prairie, To Kill a Mockingbird and The Tale of Peter Rabbit.

Know of any great books that would make for good read-aloud books? Tell us in the comments.