Best of RAR: How to Make Time for Your Own Reading

Sarah Mackenzie (00:00:06):

Hello, hello. Sarah Mackenzie here with another episode of the Read-Aloud Revival Podcast, the show that helps your kids fall in love with books and helps you fall in love with homeschooling.

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Do you wish you had more time to read? Okay. I could hear you from here. I think every mom I know wishes she had more time for her own reading. So, today, that’s what we’re going to talk about, how to make time for your own reading even when you have so very many things on your plate, and your kids are around all the time, and you’re thinking, “I will never read a book for fun again. When am I going to do that?” This is a best of RAR episode, but this is actually not something that we have aired previously here on the podcast. It was only aired as a masterclass in RAR Premium several years ago, in fact. So I would bet there’s a good chance you haven’t heard this yet, and if you have, I would bet there are some new strategies in here that might work for you.

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So it’s full of so many great ideas on how to sneak more reading time into your busy days. So I wanted to gift this with you today because even though this is a very busy season for so many of us, for us moms especially, man, spring just feels very, very busy, very full. You’ll probably have kids in activities, and the school year is in full swing, but also coming to an end. You got your eye on the end-of-year stuff coming up. Maybe you’re putting in a garden, so you’ve got your eye on that. There’s just a lot of things going on, but you can still make some time for your own reading life, and it’s really worth doing because your reading life can be a tremendous source of joy, a wellspring of joy that you always have available to you even on your hardest days. So, without further ado, let’s get some ideas for how to make more time for our own reading.

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One of the things that always comes up when we do a new book club, Mama Book Club, is that it’s really hard to find the time for reading, and a lot of us feel like, “Man, I want to do more of it.” Right? But it can be really, really tricky to figure out how to make time for that, so I think what we’re going to do… and let me go ahead. I’m going to put up a poll here. Which of these statements seems more accurate for you, “I wish I had more time for reading,” or, “I’m happy with the amount of reading I do most days?” I’d go ahead and put up these results so you can see them. So it looks like the majority of us wish we have more time for reading, and some of us… Actually, that’s a pretty big number of people who are happy with the amount of reading we do. That’s higher than I expected, so that’s good news. That means you’re prioritizing your reading life which is shocking for Read-Aloud Revival mamas.

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I think so many of us really, really want to be doing more reading, but we don’t know how to make it work. There are obstacles that come up in our life, whether that’s a lack of time, noisy kids, all of the responsibilities that we have to do during the day that makes it really tricky for us to figure out how to get more reading time in for ourselves, so we’re going to tackle that tonight. What I’m hoping is that by the end of this month… Well, what I’m hoping is that by the end of tonight, you’ll know exactly what you’re going to do this week to get more reading time in than you had last week, if that’s what you want, and if you already are happy with the amount of reading time you’re doing, to make it easier for you to get that time. Right? By the end of March, I would love it if at the end of March, we could all look at each other and say, “I am reading more than ever, and I love it,” because that makes such a huge difference in our life and our kids’ lives on a lot of levels. We’re going to be talking about that.

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The first thing I want to talk about when it comes to reading. Let’s see if I set this up correctly. The book is The Book Whisperer. I’ve quoted this recently on the podcast, so you may go, “Hey, wait. Where have I heard of that?” You heard of it probably or at least recently, you may have heard of it on the podcast. It’s by Donalyn Miller. She’s a reading teacher. I love this book. I don’t know why it took me so long to read it. I was familiar with Donalyn Miller before, but there’s so much in this book that really jives with what we talk about here in Read-Aloud Revival.

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So this is just one little piece that I circled obviously here and starred, the need for reading role models. She’s talking about the need for… She’s talking to teachers. This book is very directed toward classroom teachers. So whatever we were reading in here, I’m adapting for homeschooling, but the need for reading role model is the crux of the reading crisis, and this is what she says, “My credibility with students and the reason they trust me when I recommend books to them stems from the fact that I read every day of my life and that I talk about reading constantly. I’m not mandating an activity for them that I do not engage in myself. I do not promote reading to my students because it is good for them or because it is required for school success. I advocate reading because it is enjoyable and enriching. When my students think about me in the future, I want them to remember me as a reader with a book in my hand and a recommendation on my lips.”

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When I read that, I thought that feels a lot like what we want as homeschooling moms too, right, or even if we’re not homeschooling, as moms, right, because when our kids are grown, and they think back to their reading lives at home, and they think of us as readers, their mothers as readers, I would bet that we really want them to remember us as somebody who always has a book in our hand and a recommendation on our lips who’s always willing to talk with them about books, is excited to show them something we know that they can’t wait to read next, or just read aloud a passage or a snippet that we really enjoyed rather than, “Oh, my mom was always trying to get me to read because she thought it was going to turn me into a better person.”

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Very few of us are motivated to read when somebody tells us, “You should read this. It would be good for you.” Maybe as adults, if you are hearing that from a friend who knows what you’re struggling with, that’s different. How would you feel if your mother-in-law, let’s say, said, “I think you should read this because it will turn you into a better person?” That would probably not be the thing that you just cannot wait to get into the covers and read late at night. There are a lot of studies that show that kids whose parents read for pleasure read a lot more and enjoy it a lot more.

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In fact, there are some studies that show that that should be one of the number one, two, three… Reading aloud is right up there. Actually, I think reading aloud may have shown up… In one recent study I was reading, reading aloud was the number one… Kids who were read to out loud. That’s going to propel their future academic success, but having parents and teachers who read in front of them just to themselves, whether your kids are seeing them reading, and this makes so much sense, right, because we can say over and over how good reading is for our kids, but unless they see us enjoying… Let’s not even go there. Let’s say we can say how much reading is pleasurable and enjoyable, and they will not believe a word we’re saying if they don’t see us reading because if it was so pleasurable and enjoyable, we would be doing it. Right? So it’s that credibility that Donalyn is talking about.

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I think the key is for us, we are all very busy mothers. Right? I think the key is to see it as permission and not something on our to-do list. We get to prioritize reading because… We even get to prioritize reading to the detriment of the dishes because having a parent who reads is more beneficial than having a parent or having a house or a kitchen that’s perfectly clean. Having a parent who reads is way more beneficial to our kids’ emotional lives, academic lives, and future success than them always having towels folded and in the cabinet or the laundry always put away.

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One of the things I know I struggle with as a parent is feeling guilty when I’m doing something that I really enjoy because I’m pretty sure there’s something else I should be doing that I enjoy less that would be of more benefit to my family. The good news about reading is that we get permission to do it because it’s so good for our children, you can actually… It’s a valid excuse. It’s really great. We don’t even have to talk ourselves into why we shouldn’t be reading a book. We’re going to talk about that a little bit more.

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The question, of course, is like, “Why aren’t we doing it more? If we want to do it more and we know it’s really important and good for our kids to see us reading and see us modeling enjoying reading, then why not? Why aren’t we doing it? Why do we feel like we get to the end of each week and we’re not reading as much as we want to?” Well, I think there’s probably several common obstacles that we’re all facing that come up. But before I just launch into what I think those are, I want to make sure that we are tackling the obstacles that are actually getting in your way. So, in the chat, make sure I have it open here, tell me what is getting in the way of you reading as much as you want, just what’s making that hard to do because I want to make sure that we’re talking about those things tonight.

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Melissa says, “I’m not just encouraging. I’m enabling. I’m enabling you to read instead of to do your chores.” Yes. Okay. Time management. “So tired.” Yes, and once you have a baby, so you are especially tired. Sarah C. “Feeling overwhelmed with the day-to-day.” “Interruptions from the kids.” “Lacking energy at the end of the day.” “Fussy baby.” “Still trying to keep up with school.” “Busyness of the schedule.” “Meeting everyone else’s needs.” “Only reading at night, and then you fall asleep.” “The to-do list comes first.” “Busyness in the day.” “Tiredness at night.” Erica says, “Seven children to care for and read to.” “Distractions.” “Your phone.” “Dinner.” “Chores.” “Sometimes you feel guilty for not interacting with your kids while you’re reading.” Yep.

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Amy says when she starts a book, she doesn’t want to stop. Then, she doesn’t do the other things need to be done. Yep. “Working,” “Homeschooling,” “Just too busy,” “Too much to do.” Yep. “My phone.” Yes, Jenica. You are not alone. You know what? This is going to be fun tonight because we’re going to talk about every single thing I just looked at, I think. “Sleep versus reading.” Yes. “Interruptions.” “Little people.” “The internet.” Yes. “Guilt.” Yeah. Oh, Kathy says it’s hard with just one kid. I bet because then you’re removing the other person who can socialize with them by reading your book, right? Yeah. “Too many homeschool read-alouds so you’re too worn out to read your own books.”

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Okay. So what I would love to do with our time together is come up with some solutions to these obstacles that you’re naming, and one of the things I really want to do is think, “What is the easiest way that we can read more?” Not like, “What is the most ideal or best scenario where you can read as much as you ideally want to?” I’m not interested in asking that question because we are all busy, and depending on our current season of life, you might be like Melissa who has a baby who might not be sleeping very well at night, and you’re really exhausted. You might have a whole passel of young kids. You may have, like I have, a high school senior down to these young kids, and so we’re running all over town for all these different activities, and classes, and homeschooling, and read-alouds, and doctor’s appointments, and it’s never ending.

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We all have such a different set of circumstances, but I think one thing that I’m noticing here in the chat, and I hope you’re noticing it too, is that we’re all saying the same couple of things, right? So let’s tackle those. Let’s try to come up with the easiest ways, the absolute easiest ways to get more reading in so that by the end of tonight, you know like… Okay. The goal for tonight is for you to find the easiest strategy possible to get over whatever obstacles standing in your way, whether that’s being tired, having too much to do, feeling guilty. All right? So that’s what we’re going to do.

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Let’s start with the first obstacle that seems pretty common to most of us, and that is what I heard lots of you say up here, and I feel this too, “I have too much to do,” or this might come out as something like, “It doesn’t really feel productive or responsible to spend time reading when there’s so many other things to do.” This is going to tap into that mama guilt we were just commenting about in the chat there that you feel guilty when you’re reading because there are so many other things to do.

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So the first thing I want to do is just affirm you, basically, because you probably do have too much to do. I mean, that’s a reality. I don’t think it does any of us any good to be like… No. I mean, we really do have a lot to do. Homeschooling is a full-time job. Even if you’re not homeschooling, parenting itself is more than a full-time job, and then a lot of us have other family members to care for, or paying work, or volunteer, or church work. I mean, a myriad of things that are demanding our time and attention, and so I think it’s worth it, right here at the top, to acknowledge that you don’t just feel like you have a lot on your plate. You have a lot on your plate, so you really do.

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The good news is that framing your brain to be able to pick up a book and read just a few pages at a time, even in really small pockets of time is a learned skill. You don’t have to put off your own reading life until you have a season of life where you can read for 30 uninterrupted minutes. It’s exactly like we say with reading aloud that if you just put off reading aloud until you have 30 uninterrupted minutes, you’re never going to read aloud because it’s not going to happen hardly ever, right?

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Same thing is true for your own reading life. Now, the trick here is it’s a little bit harder to do, and we’re going to be talking tonight about a few different strategies you can use to help train your brain to get better at this. But even right now, even with all the interruptions that are coming into your day, whether that happens to be the fact that you need to start dinner or the fact that you need to pick up somebody from basketball practice or just the toddler, these little adorable images of God make it very hard for us to do anything else, right, it’s worth it to remember that it’s actually one of our highest priorities to have our kids see us reading.

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It is so important for our kids, if we want our kids to grow up to be readers, to see us reading. We don’t want our kids to remember a childhood full of us just telling them, “You need to read. You should read. It’s good for you. It’s fun. It’s wonderful,” and they’ll remember us reading aloud, but how often will they have that mental picture in their mind of mama snuggled up on the couch, or laying in bed, or sitting at the table, or on the lawn while they’re riding bikes or whatever it is reading? We want that image to be in their minds so that they remember that because that is going to propel them into their own reading life.

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I think it’s important to consider our goal because if it’s important to us to raise kids who love reading, then them seeing us reading for pleasure should actually be pretty darn high on our list of what it means to be productive. So when you’re thinking, “I can’t read because there’s too many other things on my to-do list,” I would ask you to look at your to-do list. Did you put reading on your to-do list? It might help. I am a box-checker. I make lists, and I love checking them off. When I had three kids, and they were all under four, I would take a shower, and then write “Take a shower” on my to-do list so I could check it off. Right? I know so many of you are like, “I did that too.”

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So one of the things I think we can do for ourselves is ask when you’re starting to feel like you can’t read because you don’t have time because there’s too many other things on your to-do list if reading… It’s important for your kids to see you reading, or even backing up a little from there, if it’s important to you that your kids enjoy reading for pleasure, is you reading for pleasure on your to-do list? Put it on there. Put it front and center so that you know that it’s not just something you’re doing for fun. Just because you enjoy it doesn’t mean that it’s not worthwhile. If you enjoy making dinner, you don’t think that now making dinner is of less value to your family. Right? If you enjoy folding laundry, then please come to my house. If you enjoy folding laundry, you wouldn’t feel like it was less worth folding laundry for your family. Right? We enjoy reading, and that is awesome because, again, we just get permission. It’s like a gift. We actually should be doing this for our kids to see us reading our own books for our own pleasure, and it’s actually really good for them.

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So here’s what I would say. A couple of things is to look for surprise pockets of time. If you start paying attention to this, you might be surprised at how many 5 and 10-minute pockets show up in your day. We usually fill them up with something else. So, a lot of times, if we’re not looking for them, I think we don’t see them. I fill them up with my phone, I’m ashamed to say. If I’m standing there waiting for the water to boil or waiting for a kid to run out of music practice or we show up in the doctor’s office 10 minutes early, I’m more inclined to just check my phone because it doesn’t feel as much of a commitment as pulling out my book. Also, if I’m not in the practice of reading, reading the book, you actually will feel like it’s not working. It can be difficult to actually read book. We’re going to talk about that in a second, but it will actually feel difficult for your brain to read a book in 5 or 10 minutes unless your brain is practiced at reading in 5 or 10-minute chunks.

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Even if you’re trying to get in the habit of fitting in a little bit extra reading, even just getting up 10 minutes earlier or staying up 10 minutes later can help. Staying up 10 minutes later can be tricky because we’ll fall asleep, and I’ll talk about that too, but when I’m trying to get myself to get up earlier, pulling back my alarm clock by three minutes at a time is really effective. So I’m trying to get up early right now to write, and I can get up at 6:30, but I really want to get up at 5:30, so I can’t just set my alarm tomorrow for 5:30 because that won’t work. I’ll turn it off and roll over, or I will get up and I will be a monster to everyone. So, instead, I can set my alarm for 6:27, and then for 5 days, I might get up at 6:27 maybe a week, and then I’m going to pull it back to 6:24.

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I mean, really, pulling it back. Your body won’t even notice it because it’s such a small… It’s like boiling a frog in a pot of water, right? They don’t even know that you’re turning up the heat. You’re tricking your body too, and you can do that if you want to add a little 10-minute pocket. My point is that 10 minutes adds up. Whether it’s 5 or 10-minute pockets during the day, or early in the morning, or late at night, even just 10 minutes of reading per day will still add up. I have a reading goal, a little chart where I’m tracking the things that I’m trying to do every day, and reading for 10 minutes is on there. Now, I read for more than 10 minutes every day, a lot more than that usually, but I still, on my tracker, have a note that tells me to read for 10 minutes. The reason why is because it’s too small of the amount of time for me to skip it. You could start with five. So if you’re not in the habit of reading at all, you could even just put 5 minutes.

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The reason why this works is because if you tell yourself, “All you have to do is read for 5 minutes,” it’s too small for you to skip it. Even before you go to bed, you’re like, “Well, I didn’t read for my 5 minutes, so I’ll just read for my 5 minutes.” Then, the next day, you might go, “I’m going to do that earlier in the day. I’m just going to read for my 5 minutes.” Now, if you’re reading a really good book, you’re not going to want to stop. That’s your 5 minutes, right?

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A lot of times, it’s just starting. It’s just letting go of the resistance that’s telling you to go wash the dishes, or pick up your phone, or whatever it is that you’re feeling like you need to go do, and getting into reading, and then you’re going to be there. You’re in it, right? So you’ll keep reading. But having that little tiny goal, even once you’re in the habit of reading a lot, having that little tiny goal can be a game-changer for just lowering the barriers. Let’s pull that hurdle down as close to the ground as we can get it. Like I said at the beginning, we really want to pick the easiest possible way to read more, and this is one of them, read for 5 minutes a day.

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Another idea is to choose shorter books. There’s a joke on our team because I have an aversion to long books, and they feel like a commitment to me. Even as someone who reads quite a lot, I still have an aversion to long books. Middle grade books, I still read primarily, and mostly, middle grade books, they can be read in a shorter amount of time, and that can be very satisfying. Really, you get some momentum up. If you’re reading a book a week, you get some momentum up, and then you want to keep it up. Right? You get excited about what you’re reading next.

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So if you’re struggling because you feel like you’re not reading as much as you want to, and then you look, and you realize what you’re trying to read is like David Copperfield, or Anne Corrin, or even just a really long, modern, easy book, maybe try something shorter because what happens is it’s exactly like checking off boxes on our to-do list. When you make the check, you get… We know this. When you check off something on a to-do list, you get an endorphin rush. That’s the hormone that is stress-relieving, right? When you finish a book, it’s similar. So if you can start checking off some boxes just by reading some shorter books to get some momentum going, that can really get you going in the right direction.

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Yes. Shanti says, “I just tried to start the Jayber Crow audiobook and realized that this is not the season for long books for me.” Yes, and every time and place, there’s a season. That’s also a slow book, I think. It’s beautiful. We read it for Mama Book Club last year, but it’s slow. We’re going to talk about that too, and that might be the next thing on my… We’re going to get to that too, but the importance of choosing books for your season of life. So we’ll get to that.

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One of the bonuses if you’re going to decide to read middle grade books is that you’ll know what to recommend to your kids, and you’ll know what not to recommend to your kids. They’re shorter, so you can get through more of them. They’re every bit as good of storytelling as an adult novel. They have all the elements of story in them, the story structure, and all the literary devices. All the good stuff is packed into a good middle grade, but it’s a lot shorter, and so you can get that. Oh, good. Thank you. “What is middle grade?” Thank you for asking that. Middle grade is books that are written for 8 to 12-year-olds. So amongst everything we recommend at Read-Aloud Revival, except for picture books, almost everything we recommend like The Vanderbeekers, The Penderwicks, The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, all that is middle grade, a book that’s written for an elementary age student or 8 to 12, 8 to 14.

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So if you are reading books that are geared for kids like that… Bud, Not Buddy. That’s another middle grade book that is excellent. I mean, I think it’s one of the best books I’ve ever read. It won’t take you that long to read it because it’s middle grade, so it has fewer words than an adult novel, but it’s every bit as rich of an experience as reading an adult novel. Yeah, and you know what we could do in the forum thread for this circle, Sarah, is we could start a list of our own favorite middle grade books that we’re reading for ourselves that we enjoy reading because then we could all pitch in our… I mentioned Bud, Not Buddy, Sweep by Jonathan Auxier. The books that I would read just for me even though they’re middle grade, even though they’re for kids and they’re shorter, and so they hit that need for needing something that can be done faster. Then, of course, like I said, added a bonus. You know what to recommend to your kids or not to recommend.

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Somebody mentioned this earlier, I saw in the chat, and that is audiobooks. So, audiobooks. You can read a lot more books if you start listening to audiobooks while you do housework especially. That’s my favorite time to do audiobooks. My husband will make jokes about how he can tell when I’m listening to a really good audiobook because suddenly, the house is tiny. I can tell the same thing with my 18-year-old daughter. I know she’s listening to a good audiobook when I come home from homeschool co-op or something, and the whole house is picked up like, “Oh, somebody is listening to something,” because you don’t want to stop cleaning because then you’d feel like you have to stop listening to your book. Right?

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So while you’re doing dishes, while you’re going for a walk. Sometimes I’ll put on an audiobook in the car. That’s a little trickier because if it’s an adult audiobook, you don’t know what’s going to come out of the speakers. That’s not always the best idea if you have your kids with you, but if you’re by yourself, that works, but you can at least get in… If you’re spending 20 minutes washing the dishes at night or 20 minutes folding a load of laundry every day… I spend more than that, folding laundry, every day, and you pop in an audiobook, you can get in some extra reading too.

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One of the things that’s really helpful to remember is that reading begets reading. It’s one of those habits that the more you do it, the… A couple things. The more you do it, the more you want to do it. The more you do it, the better you get at it. Now, if you’ve been out of the practice of reading for a while, there is nothing wrong with you. When you pick up a book, and you go, “Why does this feel so hard to read this when I know I used to read like crazy?” There’s nothing wrong with you. It’s reading begets reading. Your brain gets better at it again. It’s like if you took a foreign language in high school, let’s say, and I started speaking to you in that foreign language. At first, you’re going to be like… It’s like your brain is like… and then after a little bit, you’ll remember things that you’re, “I forgot about that.” You might not be fluent, but you’re going to remember things. It’s going to come back to you. Right?

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Reading is like that, and if you’ve been in the habit of reading most everything you read on a screen, you’ve just trained your brain to read differently, and so there’s no use… I mean, what I don’t want this to be is like a, “Oh my goodness, I’ve ruined my brain.” That’s not what we want to do here, but one thing that’s worth noting is that we know that when we’re reading on a screen, whether it be our phones or a computer, our eyes scan. I think it’s a Z pattern if I’m remembering this correctly. Your eyes will actually scan the text in a different shape than it will if you’re reading a book.

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I think it’s a Z shape, and maybe someone else knows so they can confirm this. I think it was in a book about what the internet is doing to our brains, but the idea being like if you’re reading on a screen, your eyes are scanning the screen, and you’re reading on a Z shape. That’s not how you can read a book. You will not be able to read a book like that. So when you go to pick up a book and read it, your eyes doing… I think it’s like an F shape, but basically, your eyes are going in a different pattern, right? So it feels slower. It actually is slower, number one, and so it feels slower because it is a slower way to read. If you’re out of the practice of it, then it’s going to feel clunky and uncomfortable.

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The good news is you can retrain your brain. You just need to give yourself lots of grace. You have to be determined not to beat yourself up for the fact that you’ve gotten out of the reading habit. It’s just going to take a little bit of time to retrain your brain. Same thing. If you are short on sleep, if you have a new baby in the house, you’re not going to be reading at your top speed just like you couldn’t run out and run 5 miles at your top speed. It’s fine. This is what it means for us to accept the season that we’re in and work within those boundaries. Right?

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The boundaries that we have set if we have a new baby in the house is that we’re going to be really tired. We probably aren’t going to be able to read for a long stretch of time or very much time at all without falling asleep or being interrupted. Right? We don’t want to wish away our season in life or wish away the people that we love more than anything. We just want to figure out how we can work within the boundaries that we have around us to be able to live the life we want to live and model reading for our kids because we want them to be readers.

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So one of the things that can help with this whole idea of reading begets reading, the more you read, the more you read is a tracker. This is one that we have on the website, and we’ll put a link to this download in the show notes, but this is just a year at a glance, and it’s… The reason we created it was for people who wanted to track reading aloud, that every day they read aloud 10 minutes or more, they could just X-off the calendar, and then you see at a glance a momentum like, “Hey, hey, we’re reading aloud a lot,” and then it makes you want to keep reading aloud.

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You could do the same thing for your own reading. Every day that I read for 5 minutes or more, I’m going to put an X on the calendar, and then you see that building up. So that can be helpful to nurture this idea of reading begets reading because I promise you that for the next 30 days, if you were to read 5 minutes a day, it would be easier for you to read on that 31st day. I mean, it’s not going to be exactly on that day, but I just mean over time, the more you’re reading, the easier it’s going to get for you to find time to read, and then you’re going to be able to read easier because you’re reminding your brain how to read long-form text in blocks which is different than the kind of reading that you’re doing on a screen.

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Just knowing that is helpful, right? If you’re scanning Facebook, reading articles online, the text is actually even organized differently. They’re smaller blocks. It’s just different. We don’t use paragraphs. I mean, think of the last newspaper, or web article, or blog post you had where they used paragraph blocks with indentations. We don’t do that on the internet, so you just have to remind your brain what you’re doing and give it lots of grace to take a little time to be able to do it well.

(00:30:16):

Does that feel better so far? I want to see how you’re feeling about the idea of “I don’t have enough time for this.” Are you feeling right now like, “Okay. I can figure out. Maybe I could see how I might be able to find a little more time,” or does it still feel like, “Yeah, I’m still not hearing anything?” Just be honest. I want to make sure that everybody leaves tonight feeling like they have some ideas for how they can make this work. Okay. Good. Sarah says, “Yes.” Tell me in the chat. I’m keeping an eye on that.

(00:30:42):

Let’s move on to another frustration. Oh, Chelsea says she’ll keep her tally on the bathroom wall. That’s so smart. That’s totally smart, or on the back of your bedroom door or something so you can see it when you shut the door at night or whenever. Right? Yeah. Good. Okay. “Not yet.” Okay. Very good. Thank you for being honest. I’ve got some more ideas. So let’s talk about another obstacle that comes up. At least it comes up for me, and I know I saw it in those notes earlier, which is frustration about being interrupted constantly. Right?

(00:31:10):

Most of us have a lot of kid noise in our house, and that can make it really hard to concentrate. If I tell you, “Hey, you should find 5 or 10-minute chunks of time that are allocated to something else and read,” I bet there are some of you who thought, “I can’t concentrate if there’s noise. It needs to be quiet,” and you are absolutely not alone. It is a learned skill and a gift, both of those things, to be able to concentrate for short bursts of time and to be able to concentrate in noise.

(00:31:38):

Now, some of this is just the way we’re wired. My 16-year-old daughter… I think there could be an elephant, a herd of elephants storming next to her, and she is just in it. There is nothing that could divert her attention, and that is not the way I’m wired. However, it is something that we can nurture and train in ourselves to get better at concentrating for short periods of time. I think it’s really, really important to remember that what we’re asking our brains to do when we’re reading a book is very different than what we’re asking our brains to do almost any other time when we’re watching a movie because when you’re watching a movie, it’s… I don’t want to say it’s a completely passive experience because it’s not completely passive, but definitely, reading the words on the page for the story versus seeing it on a screen, there’s a difference in the passivity or activity that it requires from you to bring to that experience.

(00:32:38):

Picking up your phone and reading like we’ve already talked about. Having a conversation with somebody in the room. I will find that if I’m at a coffee shop, and I’m trying to read, and someone is sitting next to me talking, there’s just… I don’t know if it’s me being an extrovert or what, but even if I don’t even want to hear their conversation, I cannot focus on anything that I’m reading, and it’s like, “Oh, I’m just paying attention to them.” So I think it’s really important that we don’t waste our precious energy beating ourselves up for why it’s hard to concentrate or why we can’t find a 5 or 10-minute pocket. So if that felt really unrealistic to you, put it aside. That’s not your thing. That’s not your takeaway for tonight. Let’s find a different one.

(00:33:20):

One might be this, and it might be choosing a time of day where everyone in your home is going to read. You and your kids are all going to read at the same time. All right? Here’s how I did this for years. When my oldest… Okay. I’m trying to remember how old everybody was. When my twins were maybe one and two, they were around that age, and then Clara was about that age because they’re all about the same age. Right? So we have three kids that are two and three, say, and then a bunch of older kids who are something like 8, 10, 12-ish. Right? We would have what we called Quiet Reading Hour. It wasn’t a whole hour, and we had to build up to it, but what we did is everybody read, all the kids and me. Nobody was allowed to do anything else. I wasn’t allowed to wash a dish. I wasn’t allowed to move the laundry from the washer to the dryer even though it’d been sitting there for an hour. Nobody else was allowed to do anything. It was just reading time.

(00:34:20):

My older kids went off to their rooms to do their own independent reading. My son, before he was a fluent reader because it took them a while, he would listen to audiobooks in his room. The three little ones and I would sit in the living room, and I would put out one blanket for each of them on the floor, and some blocks, and maybe some board books. I would sit next to them with my book, and I would set… I know some of you are going like, “She does not know how active my toddlers are.” Just wait because I would set the timer for 3 minutes and say, “We’re going to have quiet reading time for 3 minutes. You stay on your blankie, and mommy is going to read.”

(00:34:57):

So they were allowed to stay on their blankie. If they crawled off, I would just pick them up and say, “No, no. It’s quiet reading time. On your blankie, 3 minutes,” and put them back on there, and they could play with their blocks, or open their books, or chew on them, or whatever. I had my book, and I sat next to them. Now, did I read? No, and I pretended to read. Right? I opened the book, and I looked at the words, but obviously, I was not going to be able to read. That wasn’t the point. The point was to do that every day for a week, and then the next week, it was going to be 5 minutes.

(00:35:26):

You don’t even have to tell them this. You just do it. Right? You just slowly and incrementally increase it. If they’ll listen to an audiobook, that might keep them kind of still, and I wasn’t… I mean, you probably already know this about me. I wasn’t really militant about the “You have to stay on your blanket,” thing. So if they crawled over and started playing together, I’m not touching that. The goal was for them to see me reading and to give me some reading time during the day and for them to get in the habit of having a reading time, reading time. So we start with just a 3-minute increment. So then, you raise it, raise it, raise it to the point where we got to where I could read for half an hour. Once you get up to a half an hour, that becomes your favorite time of the entire day when everybody is going to sit, and you get to read your book for half an hour, and then nobody is allowed to interrupt mommy during her half an hour reading time.

(00:36:17):

Now, they’re doing their own reading too. Of course, here’s the thing. When I say nobody is allowed to interrupt mommy during her reading time, I got interrupted every day. So it’s really important to keep all this in perspective. You will get interrupted. It’s okay. That’s what we’re here for. The children are actually why we’re at home. Right? If there were no children, you probably wouldn’t be home schooling at home. Right? So they’re the point, but I think knowing you’re going to get interrupted, knowing it’s not going to look perfect, knowing that it may take weeks before you’re actually even reading during your quiet reading time is fine.

(00:36:54):

Over time, you’ll get better at it. All of you will. The little ones will get better at it, the older kids will get better at it, and you will get better at it. I would bet that if you committed to that for a couple of weeks, by the end of it, even if it was only 15 minutes, and that’s all it gave you was 15 minutes of reading time, you would find yourself with 15 minutes of reading time. That is a lot easier to get than it would be if you tried it tomorrow, especially if you tried tomorrow to say, “We’re going to have 45 minutes of reading time. Everybody go to your rooms.” Unless you have all older kids who enjoy reading, that’s not going to go over super well, so increments, and I think being really, really kind to yourself and your children, and knowing that anytime we make a change like that, it’s not going to be perfect, and it still isn’t. Even years later when we do our quiet reading time, you’re going to be interrupted. That’s just what happens. Right?

(00:37:47):

Yes. Okay. I want to make sure I was looking at questions. “I’m having trouble keeping consistent with quiet time or reading time because of occasional afternoon homeschool classes or some other distraction, but I think the 15 minutes is a good start. Totally possible.” Good. I’m glad. I’m glad. Also, feel free to move it on those days or to skip it. I used to let myself get all spun up If I couldn’t figure out a time of day that would work every day for whatever it was. Reading aloud is another time. Right? If we have co-op or sometimes there’s doctor’s appointments. If you have the practice, if you’re saying like, “Every day that we’re home after lunch, we’re going to do quiet reading time,” then it works more often than it doesn’t.

(00:38:30):

I think it comes from making the “not having reading time” being the exception instead of the rule. So if you just want to say like, “Every time that we’re home after lunch or whatever, you’re going to do it.” When my littles were taking naps when they were really little, we would do those little 3-minute up to a half an hour reading time on their blankies and stuff, but I would also do it during nap time. I’m trying to remember exactly how old they were when we… I think I got more diligent about the blanket time reading where I put the little ones on their blankets to read right next to me and I fake read when they were giving up their naps. That became more… because I realized if I don’t do this, I’m going to have a hard time getting much reading time in, and I don’t think I’m okay with that, so.

(00:39:12):

Okay. So here’s one more thing about that. You can’t say it’s reading time. Let’s say you’re going to do this after lunch or something. You can’t say it’s reading time, and then tell yourself you’re going to read your book as soon as you do the dishes or as soon as you move that laundry and take out the trash or sweep the floor. You have to decide that you’re going to read first. Now, if you are someone who has a hard time feeling much peace if the house is messy, then give yourself a pep talk that it’s only 15 minutes. I’m just not going to let you go. I’m just not going to let you go do your chores first. That’s all.

(00:39:57):

What you do is you say, “I can go do the dishes as soon as I’ve read for my…” Whatever your time is. Let’s say you have a 10-minute reading goal. That’s my goal, right, that I told you I have in my little journal that I use. 10 minutes is my goal. So, you say, “I will read. I’m allowed to go do the dishes as soon as I’ve read for 10 minutes.” So set a timer on your watch, or on your kitchen timer, or whatever. You set a timer for 10 minutes, and as soon as you’ve read for your 10 minutes, you are allowed to go do your chores. This is a couple of things. Number one, it makes it so that you don’t put off reading until all the things are done because if you put off reading until all the things are done, you will absolutely never read. Number two, it shows your children that you value the work that’s happening in your mind and that you value reading, period, I guess. It shows that you value that because we make time, and we prioritize that.

(00:40:52):

Okay. So if you were going to do your daily devotions, or say prayers, or something, and you said, “Well, I will pray as soon as I get all the other things done,” did you have that same thing that just happened in my body where you’re like, “You can’t do that. Prayer is too important. That has to start?” So I’m not saying that reading for yourself is the same as prayer. Please don’t misunderstand me, but what I’m saying is we make time for the things that we value that are important, and it actually sends a message to our kids. Right? If you’re someone who always does the dishes every day at a certain time, and you’ve decided you’re going to read for 10 minutes first, that’s going to send a really good message to your kids about how much you value and enjoy reading way more. It’s going to have way more of an impact than anything you could tell them.

(00:41:33):

All right. Let’s see. Are we good with this one? How do you feel about trying one of those? Trying either setting a timer and making a reading time that’s set aside and/or reading first? You like that idea best so far. Very good. Very good. How about this? How about this obstacle? “Reading is hard. I’m too tired. I’m tired at the end of the day,” or, “It’s easier to pick up my phone,” or, “I just am picking up my phone.” That’s me. That’s me. I will tell myself, “I’m a reader. I want to read a lot,” and when I have a second, I pick up my phone. It’s like there’s a magnet in there or something, right, or I’m really tired and I fall asleep before I… I mean, we can all relate to this. You really are tired. Just like at the beginning, I said you really do have a lot going on, and you really are tired.

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Remember, we are trying to find the easiest way to read more, and so I’m not going to… It really is easier at the end of the day to go on Facebook or to turn on Netflix, right? I’m not going to tell you not to go on Facebook and not to turn on Netflix because I told you tonight, we’re looking for the easiest way to become readers. So I’m not going to tell you to do something really hard. I’ve got a few other strategies in mind. Remember? So that strategy I just told you about where it’s the set reading time. Do that earlier in the day. I mentioned after lunch because once my littles gave up their naps, that was what we did after lunch. It became like a cornerstone part of our day.

(00:43:10):

If you are really tired after lunch, that is a terrible time for your reading time. Do it when you’re fresh. You might even do it at the very top of your school day. Remember, we’re talking about something that we value and prioritize, and where we… How much time we choose to spend on something and where we put it in our day sends a pretty good message to our kids. If we’re reading at the beginning of our day, that sends a pretty good message. I’m not saying you have to do it first thing, but I’m just saying think about your schedule. Your schedule is different than mine, so think about your schedule, and see if you can push it to earlier in the day.

(00:43:44):

If you find yourself falling asleep at night every time that you read, that’s fine, but don’t save all of your reading time for bedtime. You can read then, of course, too. Of course, you can read before you go to bed, but just don’t… If you’re saying like, “I want a 10-minute reading goal every day where I’m just reading something for the pure joy in it, just for fun, just for me, 10 minutes a day of that,” don’t have that time be counted at your bedtime reading. Move it up earlier in the day because then you’re free to go to bed, and read, and fall asleep, and not feel like you haven’t read.

(00:44:22):

Also, I don’t know about you, but sometimes, even if I just was reading this book yesterday, and then I climb into bed, and it’s been a really long day and I’m tired, I’ll look at it and think, “What was happening?” Then, I’ll go back a couple pages, remind myself of what was happening, read four paragraphs, and fall asleep, and then the whole thing happens again the next day. So read earlier in the day, and part of this thing that we have to let go of is the guilt that reading is not important enough to take up a part of our prime day.

(00:44:53):

If we’re here tonight, my guess is that reading is pretty important to you and that you want it to be really important to your kids. If so, then don’t relegate it to the very last minutes of the day when your brain is already dead. Right? You can do that too. That’s definitely what I do before I fall asleep is read, but most of my best reading happens earlier in the day. Also, your kids don’t see you reading in bed, by the way, so. Remember, we were talking about modeling, how important it is for our kids to have an image of us reading. They don’t see you reading in bed at night probably. Mine don’t anyway, and so it doesn’t really count as modeling, right, if they can’t see it.

(00:45:31):

All right. So here’s another thing, and this is for all of you who have any trouble like I do picking up your phone when you don’t mean to. I use a wallpaper on my phone. Can you see this picture? I have a wallpaper put up on my phone background that reminds me to read instead. I don’t know if you can see that, but you can definitely see it. Okay. We go on my phone. Whoop. So the frustrating thing to me about my phone is that even though I don’t want to be on it very much, I still find myself picking it up and turning it on. I don’t know if you’ve ever had this experience where you pick up the phone, and you’re on Instagram, and you don’t even remember getting on it, right, or Facebook, or whatever your thing is on your phone. So I made myself this wallpaper to put it right in front of my face like, “Read instead.” That’s what I’m just telling myself, “Read.”

(00:46:26):

Now, if I’m actually needing to respond to a text to my husband, I’ll know, “Yes, yes. I know Sarah,” and I’ll text my husband, but a lot of times, that little message will make me go, “Oh, that’s right. I don’t want to be on my phone right now.” Also, if I think I have 5 or 10 minutes to be on my phone, I have 5 or 10 minutes to read. So anyway, I made this wallpaper, and you can have it. We’re going to put it in the forum. So it’s an image, and we’ll put it in the forum where you can… underneath the video of this replay video, and you can download it, and then all you need to do is set it as a background on your phone just like you’d set a picture of your kids as a background on your phone. If you like this wallpaper, then you can use it.

(00:47:07):

Another strategy is to keep your books out where you can see them. This isn’t just a strategy. Really, we are visual people, and if you see it, it will make a huge difference. I don’t know. If your husband leaves something… I’m picking on my husband tonight. If somebody in your family leaves something out on the kitchen counter, you see it 10 times a day, it frustrates you more than if it’s tucked away somewhere. You know what I mean? It’s like you’re seeing it. It’s reminding you constantly. It’s why we put something out on the counter. “I don’t want to forget to pay this bill, or mail this letter, or whatever.” Right? So stick your book out where you can see it. Don’t tuck it away. Even if you’re a tidy person, maybe don’t tuck it away into the bookshelf or into a basket. Maybe grab the book.

(00:47:56):

What I do in the morning when I get up is I always have a water bottle on my own bed, and so I take my water bottle, and I grab my book. Even if it’s a co-op day and I know I’m not going to be reading my book that morning, I still grab my book and my water bottle when I go down to make my coffee, and I plunk them on the kitchen counter so it’s there. Then, we do the whole morning crazy, and I take my kids to co-op, and I come home, and I’m packing lunches, and I see my book, and I’m like, “Oh, you know what? I’m going to go do my 15 minutes, my 10 minutes,” and I grab my book and read instead of like, “Okay. Woo, I’m exhausted after co-op. I’m going to go get my book all the way up in my room.” I have to remember to do without singing. Put it out where you can see it so it’s just really visual.

(00:48:34):

Another thing is if you are reading a page-turner, you’re going to come up with excuses not to read more often. You’re going to be less tempted by your phone if you’re reading a page-turner because you can’t wait to come back to it. So this is where we need to talk a little bit about book choice. There’s a lot of different reasons we read, a lot of different kinds of books we want to read. If you’re reading classics because you want to improve mind or you want to be more well-read in classics, that’s wonderful. If you’re having a hard time finding time for reading, it might not be the very best week for you to read a classic. If you have a new baby and you’re having a hard time keeping your eyes open, it might not be a good time to read that either.

(00:49:22):

There are good times and seasons. I’m usually reading, I would say, at least three books at once. I’m almost always reading something nonfiction, fiction, and then, I don’t know, something else. I’m not that methodical or systematic about it. Then, you can pick up whatever your mind is fit for, and if you’re reading a page-turner, that’s what you’ll pick up every time. So what I thought I would do tonight is I thought I would give you a couple ideas because if I say, “Read a page-turner because you’re not going to want to put it down and because then you’ll find yourself putting your phone down or getting back to it as soon as you can,” that’s not that helpful unless I give you some suggestions. Right? You’ve probably heard me talk about all three of these, but just in case you haven’t.

(00:50:03):

Here’s one. This isn’t middle grade. I think it’s YA, but it’s shorter. There’s not as many words on the page. It is The False Prince by Jennifer Nielsen. I will probably have to do a circle with Sarah on how to not ignore your children and laundry once you start reading it because it’s the kind of book that you’ll start reading, and then you won’t stop reading because you can’t. If you have not been in the habit of reading and you really want to ramp up your reading life quick… Courtney, you haven’t heard of this book? Oh my goodness. I must not talk about it. Okay. So you know how it is. You think you talk about something all the time. Maybe I don’t. Jennifer Nielsen, The False Prince. If you want a very fast way to ramp up your reading life… I don’t know. It’s a little bit fantasy. I’m not a big fantasy reader, so don’t let that turn you off. I’m not going to give you much. I’m just going to tell you to read it.

(00:51:02):

My husband is not a huge reader, and my daughter got him to read this, and it was really cute. It was one of those things where he’s staying up really late reading, or I would be brushing my teeth, and then he’d plunk the book down and go, “Oh.” I’m like, “Yes. It’s really fun. Right?” Okay. “Yes, the next two in the series are good too,” Joanna Said. Joanna, I don’t know if you heard, but there is a fourth book coming out in this series in 2021.

(00:51:29):

Secrets of a Charmed Life by Susan Meissner, who’s one of my very favorite authors. Historical fiction. I’ve liked everything that she’s written. I like some a lot more than others. This one is my favorite. This one, I stayed up… I don’t even know if I should admit this, but I stayed up until 3:30 in the morning finishing it, and I am not… I’m an asleep-by-10:00 girl. It is really hard to put down. I also gave it to five people this Christmas. That’s the kind of book it is. Historical fiction. 1940s England, World War II. Anyway, page-turner. I thought it was a page-turner, and remember, we all have different tastes, so don’t beat yourself up if you start reading one of these and say, “Sarah said this was a page-turner. It’s not.” It’s fine. We all have different tastes. I’m just throwing out some options.

(00:52:23):

Lovely War is my favorite book I’ve read so far this year. I read this one in January. It’s fat. Don’t let that deter you though. It won’t take you that long to read probably because it’s hard to put down. This one is also World War II, and it’s narrated by the Greek gods. I know, but it works. It totally works. It’s a love story. I read it, and then both of my 18-year-old and 16-year-old… Actually, I don’t think my 18-year-old has started it yet. My 16-year-old loved it anyway, so it’s wonderful. Yes, those are three page-turners.

(00:52:59):

The key being that if you are in a season of life where you want to be reading a lot, remember that when it comes to modeling reading for our kids as far as them having a mental image of us reading, it doesn’t actually matter if we’re reading like Anna Karenina or Lovely War that much, right? It matters that they see us reading, and if we’re wanting to develop the habit of being readers, we want to read a wide range of things, yes, but we also just want to be in the habit of reading. I think being homeschooling moms, we have a lot on our plate, and it is really worthwhile to say, “What’s the easiest way for me to get in the habit of reading?” These books are a great way to do that.

(00:53:35):

“Age for False Prince?” I think I see. Those of you in the chat who’ve read this can type in whatever you think a good age recommendation is. I feel like they’re intense, so maybe 12 or 14 and up. I don’t know about the 12, so I’m waiting to see if someone in the chat wants to tell me if they think it’s… I mean, maybe 14 and up. Yeah. We can put it in the forum. That’s good. We can talk about it in the forum. Oh, yes. I see a question about Kindle. Yes. Are you asking me that they’re seeing us read, but that’s on a device? Is that the sense of that question? Yeah. Okay. So I have a Kindle Paperwhite. I read almost everything on my Kindle now. Probably 90% of my reading, maybe more is done on my Kindle. Because it’s a Kindle Paperwhite, that’s the only thing I’m doing is reading a book.

(00:54:26):

Now, my kids are six and up, and they all know that when they see me with this, I’m reading a book. So they’re not thinking that I’m playing Candy Crush or on Instagram. Right? Now, if you are reading on your Kindle app on your phone, that’s going to be different because it’s going to look like you’re on your phone. This prevented me from buying a Kindle for a long time. I thought it was the same experience just on my phone, but it’s not. It’s just not. The Kindle is so much better than the Kindle app on your phone. Even if you like it, I would just… It’s a lot better reading experience reading on an actual Kindle. It feels more like a regular book. It’s easier on your eyes. It’s easier to search things. Anyway.

(00:55:04):

That said, when we’re reading a lot, we’re talking about books a lot with our… or maybe just mentioning it, and maybe if you’re reading on a device like a Kindle Fire, that’s what they’re called, right, or on your phone, even just talking about like, “Oh, you know what I read today?” because even if they’re not visually seeing you reading, then you talking about the things that you’re reading is going to make an impression. It’s going to make a difference. Right?

(00:55:28):

So, again, I really feel like when it comes to being in a season where you’re raising kids, and you’re doing laundry, and you’re making dinner, and you’re homeschooling, and you’re… There’s a lot on your plate, so asking yourself, “What’s the easiest way for me to do more reading?” If that means reading on a device, then read on a device, and then figure out ways to model your reading in other ways to your kids by talking about it, for example, or by not reading everything on your phone, or by saying, “We’re going to read now, and I’m going to read on my Kindle,” and then doing it on your phone. Whatever. Does that make sense?

(00:56:03):

One of the last strategies I want to mention is Anne Bogel, Modern Mrs. Darcy. Oh, I’m seeing questions about the age recommendations for all the books, so I’ll do that really quickly, and then I’ll get on, but we can also talk about this in the forum. Secrets of a Charmed Life, adult. My 18-year-old daughter could read this. I probably wouldn’t give it to my 16, I don’t think. Adult. I’m just going to say adult to be on the safe side. False Prince, I’m going to err on 14 and up, but we can do this in the form again too. Lovely War, 16 and up, I think. Depending on your kids, right? I let my 16-year-old daughter read it. There’s nothing graphic, but it’s very mature. It’s emotionally very mature.

(00:56:40):

All right. Anne Bogel, Modern Mrs. Darcy, told me that she thinks the absolute number one best way to fall in love with your reading life more, especially when you’re short on time, is to learn how to ditch books, is to learn to ditch the ones you’re not enjoying because if you feel like you have to finish every book that you start, what happens when you start a book, and it’s not very good, or it’s slow? All of those obstacles that we’ve talked about tonight, your phone, your lack of sleep, there being too much to do, there being too much noise, nothing can overcome that if you’re reading just a bore of a book. Right? So getting comfortable with ditching books when they’re not working for you is a really good skill.

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Think about the people that you know who read the most. Just right now, just think to yourself. Who are two or three people you know in your real life who read the most… or online, whatever, who read the most? I would challenge you to ask them if they finish every book they start because I would bet that they don’t or most of them don’t, or if they do, they go, “Oh, I wish I didn’t do that, but I can’t help it,” because people who read a lot know that there are endless amounts of wonderful books and that your reading time is really… “Sacred” is not the right word, but special, right? It’s important to you, and it’s hard to get. As we said, we have so much going on that going out of your way to make time and space to read a book you’re not enjoying isn’t going to work. So you can make some rules for yourself if you feel like you’re the kind of person who just either would ditch it too early, and then you worry that you’re the kind of person that would never actually finish a book anytime your interest flags, and then you wouldn’t stick with something.

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I give myself… I’ve heard 50 pages. I’m pretty sure that’s Anne’s rule is that she makes herself read 50 pages a day or… A day. 50 pages before she bails on a book. I generally think of the first quarter. I want to read the first quarter of the book. If the author hasn’t grabbed me by 25% in, it’s not likely that they’re going to, so it’s not going to get much better from here. That’s not always true, but that’s a mark that I use that I can feel comfortable. Once I’ve hit 25%, I can ditch it without any guilt.

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“Oh, I was wondering about the Z pattern you were talking about with a Paperwhite. I’m assuming it wouldn’t be the same though since it’s not a blue screen.” That’s a good question. In fact, that’s such a good question. I looked right before we started tonight because I was trying to remind myself of reading on a Kindle, and it depends. I don’t have all the studies on the tip of my tongue. I know that they say reading fiction and reading for pleasure on a Kindle, you seem to retain about the same amount as you would from paper. Again, different studies are going to say different things.

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Alan Jacobs, when he and I… He was the guest on the podcast. He’s a university professor at Baylor University. He was saying that reading fiction… Wait. Reading? Yeah, reading literature or stories for pleasure, but when you’re going to try and analyze it, that’s going to be a little different. So if you’re having your child read Tom Sawyer, you might want to have them do it on paper and not a Kindle, or they could do it on a Kindle, but knowing that there’s going to be some obstacles they have to overcome to do that quite as well as they could do on paper. But if you were reading Tom Sawyer for fun, you’re probably going to be fine.

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I don’t think our eyes do that whole screen pattern because on a Kindle… Is that right? I don’t know, I guess, is the right answer. Let’s talk about that in the forum. Bring that up in the forum, and we can dig up some answers. Again though, I would, I guess, caution us against getting too caught up in the very best way. What I don’t want you to do tonight is leave thinking, “What’s the best way for me to model reading for my kids? What’s the best way for me to read more for pleasure?” I want you to think what’s the easiest way because we get really jammed up when we try to make everything the best. “What’s the best math curriculum to use with my kids? What’s the best literature I should read with my kids?” Right? “What’s the best homeschool co-op?”

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Sometimes we just need to have… Good enough is actually pretty darn good enough, and so I think if we can just go, “What’s the easiest way for me to read more?” that’s going to give us more benefits than deciding, “What’s the best way for me to read as much as I want to?” Right? Just bringing that idea and going, “That’s great, but what can I actually do right now?” Exactly. So good, Musa. “Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.”

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Remember that it benefits your kids for them to see you reading, even if you’re reading YA fantasy thriller. The benefit is in them sitting there and seeing you enjoy reading, seeing you choose reading over other delights. That sends a message about what reading can be for them, not just something to improve them, right? Not just something we do for school, not just something that we should do, but something that we love to do.

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Then, finally, I do want to just say one more time that the key to making this work, I think, the key to you reading more this week, this month, this year is realizing that you get to read because it’s so beneficial for your family when you do. It’s so beneficial for you to nurture the life of your mind, to do something that gives you delight. It’s like a reset button, like when you’re upset, and you go for a walk outside, and you come back in, everything looks a little bit different. It’s a reset button like that too. When we give reading a priority place in our schedule because we love it, it sends a message that all the reading curriculum and lessons in the world cannot teach our kids, which is that reading is immeasurably pleasurable, and enriching, and enjoyable. The only way that we can teach our kids that reading is immeasurably enjoyable is for us to model it.

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Right now, what I want you to do right now in the next two minutes is decide on the one thing you’re going to do that is the easiest way, the easiest thing you can think of that’s going to help you read more this week. Don’t think all months. Don’t think for the rest of the school year. Just this week. What is the easiest thing? It can be a strategy we talked about tonight or it could be something that you thought of on your own. What is the one easiest thing you’re going to implement this week to read more this week than you did last week?

(01:02:56):

Whew, that was an old one, several years old, like I mentioned, but you know what? I still got some ideas in there that can work for me that I’ve forgotten about, and I hope you heard something in there that can work for you too or at least I hope that me tossing out lots of ideas for what might work or what could work caused something to pop in your brain or made you rethink something in your own life with your own unique homeschool, your own unique kids, your own unique circumstances.

(01:03:29):

How can you fit more reading into your own life not so that it can be another to-do on your to-do list, not so that it can be another thing you have to carry, another burden you have to carry, but so that it can nourish you and be like a… It’s like having a little piece of chocolate that you can always pull out of your pocket and tuck into your mouth whenever you need it. That’s what reading feels like to me. It feels like a little piece of rejuvenation, and rest, and nurturing to myself that I can always rely on because I can always have a book, and I can always have a couple of minutes somewhere. I can find it somewhere, and I hope this episode helped you think about where.

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Now, if you liked this episode, I want to encourage you to listen to another one. Read-Aloud Revival, episode 228, which is called Reading for Fun is More Important Than You Think. So find that one in your podcast app, and then also, you probably want to check out my Mama Book List at readaloudrevival.com. Those are free. They’re collections of my favorite books to read with all this time you’re now going to have for reading. Ha-ha. Right? So head to readaloudrevival.com. You’ll find book lists in that top menu bar. So go to readaloudrevival.com. Click on “Book Lists” at the top, and then you’ll see that you can filter our book lists just for book lists for mama, and that’s where you’ll find collections of my favorites. Nonfiction, fiction, YA, all kinds of good stuff in there, so. Okay. I want to hear from the kids and what they are reading lately.

Ellie (01:05:05):

Hi. My name is Ellie, and I came from St. Louis. I live in Oklahoma, and I’m 4 years old. My favorite book is The Boxcar Children. My brother, Ogie, he’s 1 year old, and his favorite book is Fox in Socks, and he’s one.

Oliver (01:05:25):

Hi. My name is Oliver. I am 11 years old. I live in Texas, but we are traveling in an RV all over the United States. One of my favorite books is The Magician’s Nephew, and one of my favorite parts in it is when they see Aslan creating Narnia.

Speaker 4 (01:05:45):

What’s your name?

Penelope (01:05:47):

Penelope.

Speaker 4 (01:05:48):

How old are you?

Penelope (01:05:49):

Four.

Speaker 4 (01:05:50):

Where are you from?

Penelope (01:05:52):

Texas, but I’m traveling in RV.

Speaker 4 (01:05:55):

Okay. What’s your favorite book?

Penelope (01:05:57):

My Little Sister Ate One Hare.

Speaker 4 (01:05:59):

Why is that your favorite?

Penelope (01:06:00):

Because they say, “We thought she’d throw up then and there, but she didn’t.”

Speaker 4 (01:06:08):

What’s your name?

Charlotte (01:06:09):

Charlotte.

Speaker 4 (01:06:10):

How old are you?

Charlotte (01:06:12):

6 years old.

Speaker 4 (01:06:13):

Where do you live?

Charlotte (01:06:15):

Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas.

Speaker 4 (01:06:17):

Where are you right now?

Charlotte (01:06:19):

Washington.

Speaker 4 (01:06:21):

In your RV. What’s your favorite book?

Charlotte (01:06:25):

Fancy Nancy and the Posh Puppy because Fancy Nancy gets a puppy.

Evie (01:06:32):

Hi. My name is Evie. I am 9 years old. We used to live in Texas, but we’re traveling in an RV across the United States. I recommend My Father’s Dragon because it’s really funny, and my favorite part in it is the rhinoceros brushing his horn.

Sarah Mackenzie (01:07:03):

Fantastic, kids. Thank you. Thank you.

(01:07:07):

I hope you all enjoyed this episode. I will be back in a couple of weeks with another one. Of course, you know what to do in the meantime, right? Go make meaningful and lasting connections with your kids through books.