Fostering your child's love of reading: 3 Tips on how to read to your kids during meal time
My daughter and I have always been big readers.
From almost the day we came home from the hospital with her I’ve been reading over meal times. Because frankly I had no idea what to do with a baby, and our pediatrician said to read as much as possible, so I thought perfect, that’s literally all I’ve got at this point lol
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On a typical day I read about 10-15 books to my daughter, primarily over breakfast and lunch. Dinner time is reserved for conversation with our family. I started reading during the first two meals of the day because my daughter and I are normally eating alone without my Husband, as he is working in our home office. On the occasions that he does join us for breakfast or lunch we normally talk around the kitchen table until he leaves to get on with his day and then we move into our reading. This works incredibly well for us, and I encourage you to figure out what works for you and your family!
Wondering how to grow your child’s library? Click here for my blog post!
Breakfast and lunch books
This is my favorite way to read to my daughter. I pick out 10-15 books the night before and lay them on our homeschool bookshelf. Then at breakfast I grab our stack of books and start reading! Any books that we don’t read during that time will be read at lunch time.
Not sure where to start with #breakfastbooks and #lunchbooks? Try implementing these tips:
Start small. Seems like my motto lately right? But starting small will ease everyone into reading during meal times. Have your child or children pick out one or two books each, I would suggest a max of 5 books. Then rotate through each child’s chosen books. Important to note that some children may lose interest and focus during the first several rounds of reading during meal time and that’s totally normal. Remember to get in to the story! Be excited reading! If you’re excited everyone’s going to be excited!
Pause reading so YOU can eat. I don’t eat breakfast (I’ve never been a breakfast fan), but when I’m eating lunch with my daughter I will pause my reading to eat my food. Before I take that bite I will ask her a question about what we’re reading such as:
What’s your favorite color/picture/character etc on this page?
How do you think this character is feeling right now?
Can you tell me what’s happened so far in this book?
What do you think will happen next?
Asking these questions allows her to use and improve upon her critical thinking and time enough for me to eat my food without shoveling it in my face. I’ve done that. When she was younger I would ask simple questions about shapes or colors. Babies don’t need questions, just eat your food and then go back to reading.
Pause so THEY can eat. One slightly negative side effect of reading books over meal time is that my daughter will become so absorbed in a story that she forgets to eat. Hey it happens, I zone out and then forget to eat too. However I digress. When these moments occur I simply ask her a question to bring her attention back to her food:
Hey, how does your eggs/sandwich/etc taste today?
Do you think carrots taste orange? Does purple cauliflower taste like purple?
Is that (food) chewy or squishy?
Do you think the character in the book would like what you’re eating?
Gently bringing my daughter back to the present and enjoying her food only makes this reading time more enjoyable. Food plus books? yes please.
If you are feeding a baby or young toddler and are reading shorter board books I would recommend feeding them a spoonful, setting the spoon down, reading a page, and then repeating the process. Or finish the whole bowl of baby food and then read. Totally up to you and your child.
Over time your child will develop a love of reading and the time spent together with you exploring new worlds. As I look back at the baby and toddler years I think my favorite times with my daughter we’re spent reading books and enjoying our meals or cuddling before bed time, and I hope when Amelia looks back at her childhood she will remember these times reading together with joy.
Happy reading!
