Reading

I’m posting my 2012 reading list. It doesn’t compare to some of the other lists I’ve seen posted by other bloggers as far as the number of books are concerned, but with school starting again for me in a few weeks, a newborn, homeschooling, and daily family life to manage, I need a doable list – not an overwhelming one. So I’ve chosen to read one book a month, and so far it’s going great.

Here’s my list:

January: WordPress Web Design for Dummies (I’m already on chapter 4 and really enjoying this book.)

February: Illustrator CS4 for Dummies (Sadly, I never ended up getting past chapter 1 in this book last year, so it’s on my list to read this year and hopefully will get it entirely read next month.)

March: The Referral Engine: Teaching Your Business to Market Itself (listening to the audio version of this book)

April: Eats, Shoots and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation

May: Sacred Marriage

June: The Book of CSS3: A Developer’s Guide to the Future of Web Design

July: At the Throne of Grace: A Book of Prayers

August: The Five Love Languages: The Secret to Love That Lasts

September: Five Conversations You Must Have with Your Daughter

October: Have a New Husband by Friday: How to Change His Attitude, Behavior and Communication in 5 Days

November: The Chicken’s Guide to Talking Turkey with Your Kids About Sex

December: Slave: The Hidden Truth about Your Identity in Christ

What books are you planning to read this year?

Lately, I’ve been trying to get back into the habit of reading to my children before bedtime.  Life has just been so busy the last few months that I put this on the back burner and opted instead to clean or do homework at our usual reading time.  I’m picking this wonderful habit up again, though.  I’m making it a priority.  There is simply nothing like sitting with your children and enjoying a good story.  My favorite is when we read books that *I* read as a child.  The memories come flooding back, and it’s hard to believe that I’m reading a book to my kids that I read as a little girl. 

I’m also aware that if I make reading to my children a priority now, they will someday by God’s grace make reading to their children a priority in the future.  I hope so.  I want them to have a love of reading and of learning in general.  I want their imaginations and their vocabulary to be stretched as far as it can go. 

However, making time to read doesn’t always come naturally for me and maybe not for you, either.  So I’ve put together a few tips that might help us out:

1.  This is easy, but simply needs to be put in place.  Schedule a time to read to your children everyday.  Write it down somewhere you will see it and be reminded.  On your computer?  On your fridge?

2.  Let your kids know what time you will be reading to them each day.  This may be actually better than writing it on your schedule if your kids are anything like mine!  They WILL NOT forgot.  🙂  They will remind you.

3.  If you don’t have a big library of books at home, that’s okay.  Many times, kids enjoy reading the same books over and over (just hopefully it’s a story you enjoy, too!).  And there is always the library!  The public library is an wonderful resource.  We have checked out countless books from the library.  And they run great programs usually during the summer and winter months to get kids excited about reading too.

4.  If you haven’t been in the habit of reading to your children, start tonight and just do it.  I predict you will fall in love with the this special time with your kids.

Happy Monday!