*This post is sponsored by Scholastic. All opinions are my own.
20 minutes. It seems like a small and inconsequential amount of time. In 20 minutes you can fold a few loads of laundry, watch an episode of your favorite sitcom on the DVR, or scroll through your Twitter feed. You can also fight pirates on the seven seas, explore new lands, and be whisked away to another time and place. In just 20 minutes, you can find inspiration, ignite creativity, and set a child on a path towards life-long learning and a love of literacy.
Reading together as a family is powerful. Reading to your children, with your children, in front of your children, and encouraging a child to “read to self” should be a part of every family’s routine.
Scholastic Book Fairs just launched their 20 for 20 Family Reading Challenge. Families can pledge to read together for at least 20 minutes per day for 20 days and then share their reading stories with Scholastic on Facebook and Twitter using #Read20.
“So please, oh please, we beg, we pray,
Go throw your TV set away,
And in its place you can install
A lovely bookshelf on the wall….And once they start — oh boy, oh boy!
You watch the slowly growing joy
That fills their hearts. They’ll grow so keen
They’ll wonder what they’d ever seen
In that ridiculous machine,
That nauseating, foul, unclean,
Repulsive television screen!
And later, each and every kid
Will love you more for what you did.”
From “Television” by Roald Dahl
Take the challenge with me. Spend 20 minutes every day for the next 20 days, READING. See what happens. Watch what changes. What will you inspire? What new ideas will be sparked. Sometimes the smallest of changes make the largest differences. Start by just changing 20 minutes….it just might change the next 20 years.
Pick up a book. Read to your children. Read to yourself. There is no such thing as someone who doesn’t love reading – only people who haven’t found the right book.
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