THE OLDEST TRICK IN THE BOOK

If your kids are lucky, they will learn to love reading. And that, someday, will also break your heart.

- LEVAR BURTON

THERE ARE THREE important stages when it comes to your kids and reading. All three are special, but the last one is gutwrenching.

The first stage is reading around your child. My mother was a voracious reader. She always had at least two books that she was reading concurrently, and one of them was usually a Louis L'Amour novel. Reading was a natural part of her everyday life, so it was a natural part of ours, too. Parents ask me all the time, "How do I get my kid to read more?" And I ask them, "How often do your kids see you reading?" Without modeling, there can be no curiosity.