Tips for instilling a love for reading in your children

Have them surrounded by books and print from the time they are born. Find books for them with their interests and reading level in mind. Take them to the library regularly. Read to them, have them read to you, and have them see you reading to yourself. Order monthly magazines for them, they love getting mail! There are tons of great kid magazines out there (Zoobooks, Ranger Rick, etc). The more they read, the higher their fluency grows and the more they will love to read. If they don't read often, their fluency will be low and they will get frustrated and start avoiding reading. 

We keep books in the car, rather than toys.  They also like to read to each other.

Read to them, several times, daily.  Use voices for the book characters!  Record yourself reading to them and play it in the car on road trips. Take them to the library weekly - during story time, or not.  Have a lot of reading material in your home.  Let  them see you reading, even if it's the newspaper. 

My dd's are teens now, and are avid readers . . . just like Mama and Papa.  I love that I can read a book and usually pass it along to my 15 year old now. 

I just read to her every day. That was all it took.

From the day she was born, before her eyes could even focus, I held her in my lap, read to her, and tracked the text with my finger as I read.

We lived with my parents until she was a little over a year old. When we moved out, my mom sat in the floor and played with her to keep her out from underfoot while I carried boxes to the car. She watched me carry boxes of toys out he door and didn't make a peep. When I started putting her books into boxes, she screamed, "Mommy NOOOO!" She apparently thought that the stuff in the boxes was going away forever. She didn't care about the toys, but she wasn't letting her books go without a fight. I told her that her toys and books were coming to live with us at our new house, and then she was happy again. 

Started reading at night to ds from 6 months on, every single night

After he could toddle, he'd bring me books all day to read to him.  I Always, always stopped what I was doing and read to him, If I was on a phone call, I'd excuse myself.  If I was in the kitchen I'd stop making dinner, etc.  We let it be known from day one reading was a huge priority for us.

We keep books everywhere from the bathtub (when he was little) to every room in the house.  Well not bathtub now.

When he was very little I'd went to a school supply website (for actual schools) and ordered tons of posters about reading and all the seasons.  I still put them up but I confess I haven't been as good with this house.  But our house was always decorated with books.

Don't underestimate their reading skills.  I had Harry Potter on our highest shelves, ds was reading them in K and 1st grade.

Books are bought for every occasion.  Always birthday, always Christmas.

People ask what would be a good gift, I say a Barnes and Noble GC

Do all the library programs

Find a theme that they like and stock up on that theme at the library

Have them make their own bookplates

Mine in Montessori learned to write before he started to read

Books were put into cribs, toddler beds, and now his regular bed.  He sometimes stays up insanely late to read and if we don't have anything going the next day I let him.

Books at Church to keep busy, not toys

Books out around to keep busy, not toys

Books clipped to strollers.  See a trend?

Impress what a huge present to humanity the library is!!!

I've found the key is to find books they're interested in.  Neither of my kids are really into fiction.  Finding the right genre/books is crucial IMO.

Maybe its just her age but my daughter came home a few months ago begging me to do the summer reading program. The getting the silly little prizes has been an incentive like no other. 

We read every night. Last year we made our daughter read to us to really sit down and have one on one times to read.  We do audio books in the car. 

I think it is a you start small thing as a baby we read her lots of kids poetry maybe we would make it though 3 or maybe we would make it through 10.

For the baby I think seeing sister reading all the time has caused him to love his books.