Ways I Get My Kids to Embrace Summer Reading #ICanRead

As I have said before, I love to read!  My boys not so much, but they are finally opening up and letting me read to them, they are 2 and 3 years old.  I tried when they were little to sit in the rocking chair and read to them, but they would just push the books away from me.  Now they push books into my hands, probably because we read mostly at bedtime and they know the more I read the longer they get to stay awake!

So for summer reading I am challenging myself to read throughout the day and not just at bedtime.  It is hard because my boys want to play or watch tv, but I want them to appreciate books all the time and not just use them as a way to stay up later with mom or dad.

Ways I Get My Kids to Embrace Summer Reading:

• I bring books outside and we lay on a blanket and look at books
• I pick books related to summer time and water
• I pick books related to holidays like 4^th of July or for birthdays (since my youngest has a summer birthday)
• We keep books in the car since we do a lot of little road trips in the car.  This way the kids play with the books instead of whining for me to turn on the DVD player.
• Visit the library and let the kids look at books and play with the games and puzzles.
• I load my iPod Touch with kids books, and surprisingly my son likes those Apps the best.
• I carry his Vtech V.reader everywhere we go because my 3 year old has yet to get sick of it and I can’t wait until the free book downloads are available!

Now I still read at bedtime as it seems to calm them and I hope give them sweet dreams, but I really hope that as they get older they will read throughout the day and love it.  I hope that they will beg me to take them to the library because they already finished the book we just checked out or because there is a new book that they just have to read!  I think the library is also a great place to visit too just to cure some summer boredom.  I also let my 3 year old stay up with me later than usual if I am reading my own book as long as he looks at books himself!

Any other suggestions for getting kids to read in the summertime?

Mama’s Money Savers Disclosure:  I wrote this blog post while participating in the TwitterMoms blogging program to be eligible to get an “I Can Read!” book. For more information on how you can participate, click here.