December 11, 2024
“It is better to know how to learn than to know." - Dr. Seuss
I often find myself lamenting that I have no time to read these days. Wake up, workout, get the kids ready for school, send them off, then work-work-work until it's time for evening responsibilities, which are many. Where's the time to read?
Making the time is important, even if it's only a few pages a day.
I happen to love reading books, and I try to make lots of time to read with my kids, checking out books from the library, creating a library at home for them. Humble brag: Both my kids love to read as well, from a very young age, and I give myself and Ryan lots of credit for cultivating the habit, at least for our first-born. My son had an innate love of stories (still does, and I hope it continues forever) and while he's only just learning to read at 4, he has asked for books and stories from before he could even say much. We've read them stories from when they were babies.
Imaani loves fantasy stories now and Rhys has always been into wolves and scary things. The more vampires and werewolves in the story, the better. I enjoy non-fiction more than fiction. Ryan reads psychology and economics. We both read lots of childen's books. 😀📚
If you don't love to read, helping your kids read is going to be harder, but it's worth spending a little bit of time everyday - one book, one 5-minute story, a few times a day is all it takes. It's more enjoyable to read to children than it is to read adult books! Kids' books are funny, entertaining, have morals, typically quick reads, and a fun family activity. Frankly, if I were counting the kids books I've read this year, my Goodreads list for the 2024 challenge would have been complete by now!
I recently read a quote in Hidden Potential by Adam Grant that by high school, American students either completely dislike reading or simply aren't interested. With all the tech we have on hand these days, it's easy to never pick up a book. With any and all information at our fingertips today, mistakenly making us feel worldly, educated and knowledgeable, we believe we know more than we do simply because of the sheer volume of information being thrown at us everywhere we look. A survey of 1,600+ individuals in the US said that nearly half (48.5%) of respondents didn't read a single book in 2024.
Creating a love of learning comes from reading. An active imagination comes from having access to books. I read a statistic somewhere many years ago that success later in life is correlated to access to books at a young age. It doesn't have to be an expensive habit like many other hobbies - library cards are free, and you can figure out what genre of books you like by experimenting. I think for the first time in my life, I have multiple incomplete books going into the end of the year. I guess they will become 2025 reads!
Simplest PSA today: Read. More. Books.