What Does Reading for Pleasure Look Like at Home?

Literacy Tree

We talk at length about promoting this in school and since the tables were turned 6 weeks ago we’ve had a chance to really see how we can ensure there’s time for establishing a reading culture at home. 

I’ll actually admit to writing this sitting in bed in the morning. We’re not a Joe Wicks house, but we all start the day with breakfast in bed and a book. Or a notebook. I’ve found that taking breakfast up to the children stops any arguments about when to get up but we take our time waking up and make reading the first item on the homeschool timetables (We’ve recently re-banned screens in the bedroom again and it makes all the difference). We’ve also all taken turns of late to have a bit of quiet time and ‘take to our rooms’ (although I like to actually flounce off to mine).

In the absence of bookshops and libraries, we’ve instead shared books with friends. With requests taking place via Whatsapp, we’ve left them on walls and made dropping them off part of our walks. We’ve had deliveries via brothers on skateboards and books hurled towards the house from bikes in carrier bags as if they were doing paper-round in a bygone age. A delivery of anything is an actual event in our house thanks to our over-friendly but barky dog.          

We’re treating our books a bit like box sets. We’re enjoying getting into a series - our youngest is binging on Percy Jackson - whilst ordering online to get a new release the day it comes out (the eldest was waiting by the letter box for the latest Holly Jackson to arrive on publication day).

We’ve gone to bed later, having watched TV as a family, but then given more time for story time. This used to sometimes fall off the day when I was doing it, with an urgency to try and get children into bed for school the next day so I could carve out ten minutes for myself but now my husband is here each night, he is able to read his very own childhood favourite, Lord of the Rings, which is less of chore for him, more of a pleasure and somehow the magic of it being someone else and a well-loved book is making this an extended activity each night.  Leaving me time to actually wash my face. 

Magazines and newspapers have made a comeback. We’d cut down on these as space in the recycling bin became a premium and we were genuinely spending a small fortune in a WHSmith (not just on the chocolate at the checkout) but we’ve taken to having them delivered and rediscovered the pleasure in reading a snippet and piling them up by our beds (and in toilets). 

We’re listening. Whilst drawing, building Lego, cooking and tidying rooms (a daily activity). Audio books are a constant feature. We often listen to the same books on loop. We fear for a dystopian future where Stephen Fry’s voice wears out.  

We've 'watched books' as well. TV adaptations of Malory Towers and Noughts and Crosses have been huge hits in our house (as well as Normal People for the adults) and we've all discussed whether they are true to the book and what version we preferred. That counts for 'critical reading', right?

Reading with pets has helped make the process less rushed. We have taken to reading with an animal by our sides or in our lap. (I won’t bore you with the details but we’ve recently become a 4 pet household) This has upped the time spent on the sofa of late and so - with cups of tea and hot chocolate - we’ve given ourselves over to cuddling a creature whilst turning a page. Bliss.

Of course these book behaviours haven’t happened over night, and we’ve always had books in the house, but then we’ve had time of late to have more conversations about books; more time to tidy our shelves and rediscover an old friend; more time to be bored and turn to a different distraction. Time for reading sometimes happens sporadically but it sometimes needs a bit of prompting and a bit of managing to turn to a page and not a device. We still pick up books and don’t continue them - my own concentration span seems to have waned somewhat (maybe drowned under news?) but we’re not feeling guilty about it right now. I’m in book group that Zooms online and we hardly discuss the book (actually only half of us had read the last one) but we still talked about what we’d read of late - and watched - but with wine. ‘Reading for Pleasure’ should be exactly that. For pleasure and for ourselves.

Posted in: Home Learning