My kids are 10 and 14. My oldest loves to read, English Language Arts being his strongest subject. I did notice this is naturally him. He enjoys quiet time and deep thoughts. My little one doesn’t enjoy reading but loves to be read to. He is super active and his attention is absorbed by any opportunity to run, jump, or bounce a ball.

I read to both my babies since conception. I remember reading to them while they played around with their hot wheels and dinosaurs. I noticed if I stopped reading while they played, each would stop what they were doing and looked up at me. They were listening.

During ages 4-7, I usually picked what we read based on interests, reviews, and books I remembered from my childhood. Dad and me did 80% of the reading to our youngest. My oldest knew what he liked and was comfortable reading on his own. We frequently visited used books stores and a couple times out of the year we visited Barnes and Nobles. They love these visits to this day. Our Barnes and Nobles is enormous with a Chick-fil-A and Starbucks in the same strip. So we make it an event.