We had just moved to a new city and began the scheduling process for our son to begin at his new school.  The principal and counselor met us with warm smiles and positive expressions to help him, and us, with the transition.  At one point, they asked about my biggest hope of transitioning to school.  I remember having a wave of thoughts from my vantage point of being an instructional leader.  In trying to isolate my top hope, it seemed to blurt out of my mouth: 

"I hope he develops a love for reading."

I know the research: Reading has many connections to success in other areas and is a foundational role in learning. But I wanted him to have something more than “success” in reading—I wanted him to love reading. There’s something more than just knowing how to read. I wanted my son to get “lost” in books in the same way I did at a young age.  

When I was young, my parents surrounded me with books through the summer!  We went to the library regularly and combed through various books that piqued my interest.  Early on, we looked at picture books, and she asked me questions about what I saw and had to predict what might happen next, what the characters were feeling and why, and what sounds were made for each letter to form words.  One book seemed to springboard curiosity into another with just a simple reference and question - like going from The Three Little Pigs to a book about construction trucks!

After dinner, we all went into our separate areas of the house for “Quiet Time” - a chance to read by ourselves. Most times, I would sit on the floor next to my Dad just to watch him devour medical journals while I read through the Choose Your Own Adventure Books.

Before bedtime, my parents read stories to me as I lay on my pillow. My Dad was great at changing his voice to act out the various characters. The combination of his voices and his hand stroking through my hair seemed to whisk me away to far-away lands as I drifted to sleep.

This summer, I encourage our families with young children to visit the library, help them pick out books, set up schedules to read daily, and build their curiosity and love for books! Don’t underestimate the power of a good book in the early years!