Quiet Family Reading Time (aka Sustained Silent Reading)

Children who are surrounded by reading will learn to read, will love to read and will read for life... and a love for reading can take you all kinds of amazing places!

This is pretty much the premise of one of my favourite books, The Read Aloud Handbook  by Jim Trelease. It is a wonderful book full of all kinds of fascinating stories, studies, research and anecdotes about the benefits of reading aloud to kids (yes, it really is a fascinating read, even if it sounds a little dry, I promise it's not!). Trelease shows the benefits of reading aloud until way past the age kids can read for themselves (like, basically, till they leave home or beg you to stop, haha) as well as heaps of ways to encourage a life-long love of reading in your children. While it may seem like preaching to the converted if you are already a big fan of reading (like me!) and of encouraging reading for your kids (like me!), this book is still so fascinating, engaging and full of practical ideas - it will make you pretty much a full-on obsessive evangelist for the cause, haha!! :) I highly recommend it... just in case you hadn't guessed! ;)

Trelease talks about the importance of Sustained Silent Reading throughout his book. Basically, um... reading for pleasure, in silence! AKA... reading to yourself. But this simple concept is also combined with another vital element. You see, our kids actually (when they are young at least!) think we parents are pretty cool. So, one of the best 'advertisements' for reading is for them to see us reading - just for fun! This made me stop and think - how often do the kids see me reading? Er.... pretty much never! Because I mostly read for pleasure and relaxation - and relaxing whilst the kids run around, climb on my head, request drinks every four minutes and ask where the blue crayon is, is not all that relaxing! Amiright?! (Plus, who has the time to read during the day? Not me!). So, these days pretty much all my reading is done in bed at night before I crash into sleep. No child witnesses that! I realised that as much as I can surround the kids with books and read to them daily, etc, it's not all that convincing if they don't realise that I actually love to read too!

What's the solution to this dilemma? Simply, taking some time to sit down with the kids and all read together... they read their books, I read mine and we all silently participate in a love for books! They get to see me enjoying my reading and we all benefit from the peaceful down time :)

So I was keen to implement SSR into our daily routine, combining the idea with the concept of Quiet Reading Time from Terrific Toddlers/Babywise series. Since I have been somewhat 'back on board' from my hyperemesis, I have slowly started introducing this idea in the last week or so to our routine - usually after lunch and before nap time. It doesn't happen every day as sometimes lunch is late/kids and Mum are tired etc! But most days, it's happening and we love it! The kids select two or three books each of their choosing and sit on the couches in the family room (and let's keep it real - separate couches is key!!) and I bring whatever book I am currently reading (right now it's The Mission of Motherhood by Sally Clarkson - so inspiring!). I then set a timer as this helps us all focus for the amount of time set and saves all the questions about 'how long we have left' being asked. We started at 5 minutes (hey, I do have a 2 year old boy!) and I am working up minute by minute each day as the kids (**cough**Eli**cough**) are able to handle the length of time reading quietly and happily. Today we did 8 minutes and my aim is about 15-20 minutes or who knows how long!!

I admit I was a teensy bit skeptical of how this would work, but have been pleasantly surprised - it has been a wonderful time. A Mum of two little kids sitting down to read for pleasure in the middle of the day - are you kidding me?! It feels positively decadent!! Lily loved it straight away and often asks to do it and to keep reading longer (I'm sure this has nothing to do with it taking place right before nap/rest time, ha!). Eli, who I admittedly did not have high expectations of (he is oh so noisy and wriggly at this age) has also done really great - even though I was expecting it to be a slow learning process. The first day, my rule-loving boy basically sat there the whole time stage-whispering repeatedly 'No talking! Quiet reading! Shhhh!' while Lily and I read! So cute. After a few gentle reminders on that day as to what we were doing, not to mention witnessing our example, the very next time we did it, he sat next to me looking at his books really quietly and happily for basically the whole time - with the occasional sideways glance at me just to check in... and just the occasional small wriggle! He now knows exactly what to do and reads calmly. Well done, Buddy Bear xx

'Mummy, we are 'sposed to be reading quietly'(Busted taking photos, oops!)

I love that whilst we are all enjoying our books, we also get to just partake in some peaceful time together, winding down in preparation to rest after the noisy chaos of lunch. I love exchanging the occasional quiet and happy smile with my two sweet babies. It's also a great opportunity for building up skills like learning to sit quietly, self-control and so on which I think is just as important. Afterwards everyone has a chance to talk about what book/s they read and what they like about it.

Books, kids, togetherness, peace... building memories, a love for reading, and self-control. 

Well, with all those things combined, I gotta give a big thumbs-up to Quiet Family Reading Time!