A Special Part of Our Daily Routine

Reading aloud together is an activity that my kids and I do regularly, and it is one that everyone has come to thoroughly enjoy. For our family, the most practical time to read is at the very end of our day, after the house is in order, pajamas are on and our one-year-old is down for the night. It is then that my daughter and I join the four oldest boys in the family room, which also happens to be where the boys sleep at night. The lights in the room are turned off, and I curl up in my reading chair with my back to the door. It is there that the hallway light shines just enough to light up the pages of the book that I am reading to my kids.

I need to say that we don’t read every night. There are times when something else is going on. We might stay up late to watch a movie with daddy who we don’t always get to see because of his rotating work schedule. Or we might be out late at an evening meeting that we attend weekly. And then there are times when being pregnant for the seventh time just takes its toll, preventing my eyes from staying open and focused for long enough to get through a chapter. Reading together at bedtime is not a requirement for our family. It is however an activity that we have all come to look forward to at the end of the day. And the more we read together as a family, the more I realize that we would be missing out on so much if we didn’t share this time together.

My initial goal in establishing a regular reading time was an academic one – to make the subject of history come alive to my kids through the reading of living books. I shamefully admit that I have virtually no recollection of any of the history that I was taught as a child; my only memory is that it was dreadfully boring. I didn’t want my kids to have that same experience with history. It has been rewarding for me to have this opportunity to learn – and actually enjoy learning – about history for what seems like the first time with my kids. I am so grateful for such a simple and enjoyable activity that has allowed me to educate my own mind and the minds of my children at the same time, and I have taken advantage of reading aloud to expose my children to a variety of other subjects in this same unforced manner.

In addition to being an effortless way to impart information to my children, our times of reading have also provided us with plenty of opportunities for training in character. The kids are maturing and learning to be respectful and thoughtful of each other by choosing not to make unnecessary noises or engage in other distracting behavior. Though the one-year-old is not reading with us right now, he will be joining us when he is physically able to stay up later, probably sometime after his second birthday. Then he will come to learn – just as his very busy three-year-old brother has learned – that our reading time is an opportunity for him to practice self-government by keeping his head on his pillow, his hands to himself and his voice quiet. As my children grow and mature in their ability to govern themselves – even during our reading time – they are gaining a foundational skill for developing Christlike character. It is never too early for character training.

There is another reason why I love our times together reading as a family. It provides us with the opportunity to have the quality and focused interaction with each other that I so deeply desire. This type of interaction is often difficult, if not impossible, to experience in the busyness of our daily lives in a home filled with so many little ones. But the atmosphere changes with our bedtime reading to one of relative stillness and calm, a welcoming invitation to conversation that is unhurried and intimate. In fact, some of my most treasured discussions with my kids have occurred at our family read aloud times after the younger ones have drifted off to sleep.

And I’ll be sharing all about one of those heart-level discussions in my next post…

~ Christi Faagau