How do you get your kids to read?

     What I really meant to say was, "How do you get your kids to LOVE to read?" I, myself, am a huge reader.  For a while, I was reading a book a week. I've slowed down a bit because of lack of time and sleep :), but I still love to read. I try to talk to my kids about reading and bring home lots of different books to try. I read out loud when there is time and tell them memories about books. My oldest, my daughter, didn't seem to like to read when she was younger. Sure, she could read, and did score quite high on all her reading tests, but I wasn't sure she really liked it. Then, all of a sudden one day in junior high school, she needed a book. I must have found just the right one, because from that day forward she LOVED to read. I couldn't find new good books fast enough for her. She devoured books. Then, a fun thing happened, we started reading some of the same books!! And then we could talk about them, and watch the movie versions and agree that the books were way better!! How awesome is that?!

My second child, my son, is the same way. It took me a little bit to realize just which books to bring home for him, but after years of scoring above and beyond in reading, now he LOVES to read also, devouring series after series. We often read together at night and the next day when he's read without me in school, he remembers in vivid detail all that has gone on and recounts it for me as if we had read together.

My third, also my son, is just getting started reading. Again, he doesn't seem to enjoy it. He has to read 20 minutes every night and he does without much complaint, but as soon as the timer goes off he is done. I started bringing home graphic novels for him and he eats them up, but I'm still not sure reading is a favorite pasttime for him. Hopefully, someday in the near future it will just "click" for him, like it did my other two.

I am so excited to share a love of reading with my children. It's one of my favorite things to do. There is a new book out called Raising Kids Who Read by Daniel Willingham. NPR reviewed it here (http://www.npr.org/blogs/ed/2015/03/17/387774026/q-a-raising-kids-who-want-to-read?sc=tw), and they share a few of Daniel's tips on teaching your kids to love reading. I'm not sure I did anything special, but I did read to them, and in front of them and we talk about reading and I make sure books are available to read. What do you do to foster a love of reading?