According to many Facebook posts, it’s International Book Week. I’m not sure how far reaching this is because I can’t find many other declarations to celebrate books this week that don’t link back to Facebook. The game their playing is kind of fun and so the Facebook posts got me thinking about books in general.

Reading is my escape. A bubble bath and a good book and I’m in heaven. I’ve always enjoyed reading. I love that words on paper can conjure up images in my mind that I’ve never seen, evoking emotions as my eyes scan over printed words and I internalize them and find meaning there. Reading has always been an experience I loved. Wanting to share this love with my children, we have been reading since they were very little.

Encouraging my kids (all boys) to read 20 minutes a day for school used to be a chore. As long as I read to them when they were little they loved it and I loved it too. As we’d sit down to read we’d snuggle together and indulge in a story. Then they started to grow up and reading became more of a chore. As it was assigned for homework and the task became an individual event, they became even more resistant. For a while I’m sure they classified reading as a waste of time. Suffering through it until the timer ran out and they could be on to greater adventures.

As they have grown and become older they have found things that interest them and in turn read about those things. They began to read series of books. Some of the adventures they used to run outside to seek were now happening in their heads. ( and they liked it!) Suddenly they were having conversations with other kids at school about books they were reading and the love of reading began to develop. Reading has now become a habit and a love of my children.

I guess the moral of my rambling is to all you the mothers out there with young children who find themselves struggling like I did is…. It get’s better. Put books in front of them and encourage them and they will find a place for reading in their lives too.

So to honor International Book Week this is the game being played. Turn to page 52 of the closest book. Read the 5th sentence on the page and enter it in the comments. Ready, go!

“He nodded his thanks and moved to the bow.”