While I am no longer one to make New Year’s Resolutions — I believe we can change or begin again at any moment (and anyway this year I don’t have the capacity, as I shared last week) — I do enjoy thinking about the year ahead. You might imagine that usually includes my family’s reading life, and you’d be right.
After setting some reading goals for my family last January, I checked in on myself in August to find that I’d met two(ish) out of three goals. Not bad. Then I proceeded to set another goal between August and December — three poetry teatimes before the end of the year — and failed completely. Do you think we managed even one? Nope. Yet, did we read poetry all the time? We sure did.
My point is: even someone who places enormous emphasis on reading aloud and all the good stuff that can happen inside a family because of it doesn’t get around to All the Things — be they books or dreams or teatimes. But I still think there’s power in saying what we want — and in this case, in writing it down and sharing it.
So let’s do that, okay? I’ll go first.
In 2023, I want:
To shift what we do during our Morning Time so that the children have greater agency in choosing books and activities.
To read more Spanish-English books, create a Spanish-English section of our home library, and add more titles to our collection.
To work our way through a list of Greek myth books I created awhile ago (with help from Susan Wise Bauer’s A Well-Trained Mind), so that we can proceed to one of two versions of Homer’s The Iliad — either Black Ships Before Troy by Rosemary Sutcliffe (the illustrated hardcover picture book, not the paperback without images) or The Iliad by Gillian Cross.
I don’t have family reading goals besides continuing our routine of going to the library every Saturday morning. But I am reading ‘Bleak House’ by Charles Dickens as part of a Patreon community.
My son is starting to learn to read. He turns 5 in March so starts K in the fall. My MIL got him some ‘Bob books’ for Christmas. I had never heard of them. She taught middle school English so is more in the know on things like these. I didn’t have a goal for our son to read before K but he seems to be interested in it, so I will support his learning. I just hope he isn’t bored in K but a friend who teaches K assured me there will be plenty of social/emotional stuff to learn!
I think I'd like to be more consistent about doing "reading time" on the weekends with the kids. "Reading time" means that first I read a book to the 3yo and 7yo together and then all three of us read individually & silently (though the 3yo listens to a story on a Lunii storyteller or a Yoto). There are lots of activities during the week so while bedtime is still about reading I enjoy having these "reading parties" with them and it feels more intentional.
This year we are putting more intentionality and focus behind teaching my daughter to read. This is still very child-lead and fairly unstructured since she's still pretty little. But building confidence and strengthening phonics has been fun so far and definitely something to keep at.
This may seem unambitious, but keeping the good reading habits we already have seems like a worthy enough goal. It may been lame to have a "more of the same" approach, but as we get more busy and our kid grows, I want to be sure that we are still making the space for reading time, and especially to connect.
And lastly a super duper ambitious goal is to maybe, perhaps start a read out loud podcast with my daughter where we have a short discussion about the story that puts information and SEL into context. Fingers crossed on that one!
I don’t have a specific goal except to continue what we’ve been doing and read all the time in front of my kids, alongside my kids, during down time, etc. I used to save reading time to when I was alone but I never got thru books and I wanted to manifest a family of readers so I started with myself. Books everywhere I go! My husband is the same. Now I see it more in my kids. So we will keep going like this in 2023!
So many awesome goals here, thanks for the great thread and robust comments.
I’m reading LOTR out loud to my kids and that’s about it for now. Weekly trips to the library and encouraging my kids to read on their own is another thing we’ll continue.
I want to create more reading rituals with my 3-year old daughter beyond just the usual "bedtime story". When she gets home from pre-school she sometimes wants to zone out and watch a movie, but I think she'd also be receptive to a consistent after-school book routine. And we do regular library trips, but I want to try giving them a theme. Like today we're only looking for books about monkeys! Or only books that have yellow covers! Or any other fun ideas beyond the usual things that draw her attention in the library. I've given myself new year reading goals in the past, but thanks for making me reconsider it from a family angle!
We read 519 picture books/chapter book chapters last year which felt like good going and a really lovely practice. This was just me, I didn’t count other peoples’ readings. I think I’d like to keep that up for 2023 and really support my son’s early reading, making reading homework from school a bit more fun (why are early readers so, so bad?)
My kids are 9 and 12 now, both very enthusiastic readers, so my main family reading goal is more of a personal goal, and it’s to reserve judgement on their choices of books.
As long as they’re voluntarily reading, and not choosing anything that’s wildly inappropriate in terms of content, that’s enough--I don’t have to like every single title they like, and I *can* keep my opinion to myself...but it’s hard! I have a lot of opinions and no poker face.
I hadn't thought about forming a family reading goal before. That's a great question.
My older kids are 6 and 8, and my (unspoken) goal has been to choose read-aloud books they both really enjoy. Last year, we read some longer novels together. The older one loved them but the younger lost interest.
So, we've backed off those and are reading through the Dragon Master series and that's working really well. I find I enjoy the time way more when they're both into it.
1) Organize the massive amount of books we've accumulated - find buried treasure that we haven't seen in awhile, and donate ones that we don't love anymore. I also want to install new shelves in the basement, upstairs stairway landing, and both kids rooms.
2) I've been making an effort to read my own books in front of the kids. I'd like to continue modeling that behavior (for my own interests/sanity and for them). Books over screens.
3) I want to start morning reading time. We don't generally read in the mornings, it is hectic and rushed, but that's usually because I stay in bed scrolling on my phone, even when I wake up early. I want to actually get up when I wake up early, so that we have more time together when the kids wake up as well.
Just like last year, reading your note reminds me to listen to more audiobooks on my commute. Starting with Happy Hour. And, reminding myself that it’s okay to pay for audio books if I can’t get them fast enough through the library.
Sarah, I'm wondering how the Shakespeare books went with your crew? Thanks to Taylor Swift, Blythe asked me who Romeo & Juliet are and as I explained the play she was horrified by the ending but also curious to read it herself. I'm not sure we are quite ready for iambic pentameter -- and I immediately thought "I bet Sarah has some introduction to Shakespeare book she has reviewed." Thank goodness for your archives. Just wondering if any of the books you mention above you recommend?
We are working on reading through a book with a quote of the day this year. Hoping to be consistent in the time of day we work it into a routine.
I don’t have family reading goals besides continuing our routine of going to the library every Saturday morning. But I am reading ‘Bleak House’ by Charles Dickens as part of a Patreon community.
My son is starting to learn to read. He turns 5 in March so starts K in the fall. My MIL got him some ‘Bob books’ for Christmas. I had never heard of them. She taught middle school English so is more in the know on things like these. I didn’t have a goal for our son to read before K but he seems to be interested in it, so I will support his learning. I just hope he isn’t bored in K but a friend who teaches K assured me there will be plenty of social/emotional stuff to learn!
I think I'd like to be more consistent about doing "reading time" on the weekends with the kids. "Reading time" means that first I read a book to the 3yo and 7yo together and then all three of us read individually & silently (though the 3yo listens to a story on a Lunii storyteller or a Yoto). There are lots of activities during the week so while bedtime is still about reading I enjoy having these "reading parties" with them and it feels more intentional.
This year we are putting more intentionality and focus behind teaching my daughter to read. This is still very child-lead and fairly unstructured since she's still pretty little. But building confidence and strengthening phonics has been fun so far and definitely something to keep at.
This may seem unambitious, but keeping the good reading habits we already have seems like a worthy enough goal. It may been lame to have a "more of the same" approach, but as we get more busy and our kid grows, I want to be sure that we are still making the space for reading time, and especially to connect.
And lastly a super duper ambitious goal is to maybe, perhaps start a read out loud podcast with my daughter where we have a short discussion about the story that puts information and SEL into context. Fingers crossed on that one!
I don’t have a specific goal except to continue what we’ve been doing and read all the time in front of my kids, alongside my kids, during down time, etc. I used to save reading time to when I was alone but I never got thru books and I wanted to manifest a family of readers so I started with myself. Books everywhere I go! My husband is the same. Now I see it more in my kids. So we will keep going like this in 2023!
So many awesome goals here, thanks for the great thread and robust comments.
I’m reading LOTR out loud to my kids and that’s about it for now. Weekly trips to the library and encouraging my kids to read on their own is another thing we’ll continue.
I want to create more reading rituals with my 3-year old daughter beyond just the usual "bedtime story". When she gets home from pre-school she sometimes wants to zone out and watch a movie, but I think she'd also be receptive to a consistent after-school book routine. And we do regular library trips, but I want to try giving them a theme. Like today we're only looking for books about monkeys! Or only books that have yellow covers! Or any other fun ideas beyond the usual things that draw her attention in the library. I've given myself new year reading goals in the past, but thanks for making me reconsider it from a family angle!
We read 519 picture books/chapter book chapters last year which felt like good going and a really lovely practice. This was just me, I didn’t count other peoples’ readings. I think I’d like to keep that up for 2023 and really support my son’s early reading, making reading homework from school a bit more fun (why are early readers so, so bad?)
My kids are 9 and 12 now, both very enthusiastic readers, so my main family reading goal is more of a personal goal, and it’s to reserve judgement on their choices of books.
As long as they’re voluntarily reading, and not choosing anything that’s wildly inappropriate in terms of content, that’s enough--I don’t have to like every single title they like, and I *can* keep my opinion to myself...but it’s hard! I have a lot of opinions and no poker face.
I hadn't thought about forming a family reading goal before. That's a great question.
My older kids are 6 and 8, and my (unspoken) goal has been to choose read-aloud books they both really enjoy. Last year, we read some longer novels together. The older one loved them but the younger lost interest.
So, we've backed off those and are reading through the Dragon Master series and that's working really well. I find I enjoy the time way more when they're both into it.
1) Organize the massive amount of books we've accumulated - find buried treasure that we haven't seen in awhile, and donate ones that we don't love anymore. I also want to install new shelves in the basement, upstairs stairway landing, and both kids rooms.
2) I've been making an effort to read my own books in front of the kids. I'd like to continue modeling that behavior (for my own interests/sanity and for them). Books over screens.
3) I want to start morning reading time. We don't generally read in the mornings, it is hectic and rushed, but that's usually because I stay in bed scrolling on my phone, even when I wake up early. I want to actually get up when I wake up early, so that we have more time together when the kids wake up as well.
Just like last year, reading your note reminds me to listen to more audiobooks on my commute. Starting with Happy Hour. And, reminding myself that it’s okay to pay for audio books if I can’t get them fast enough through the library.
Sarah, I'm wondering how the Shakespeare books went with your crew? Thanks to Taylor Swift, Blythe asked me who Romeo & Juliet are and as I explained the play she was horrified by the ending but also curious to read it herself. I'm not sure we are quite ready for iambic pentameter -- and I immediately thought "I bet Sarah has some introduction to Shakespeare book she has reviewed." Thank goodness for your archives. Just wondering if any of the books you mention above you recommend?