“When I was a child my family enjoyed fishing on Puget Sound. The night before a fishing trip, my father brought in his tackle box from the garage and opened it as if it contained treasure. He unpacked hooks and sinkers, line and lures. He painstakingly tied leaders to lures, and rolled them up into little bundles. My brother and I sat at his feet, watching this magical display. We knew the next day all of these items would be used as Dad baited hooks for us and we went after the elusive salmon….”

This is an excerpt from Chapter Three of Homegrown Readers. My point in sharing this fishing story is that every family builds a culture. Most often the important values in the life of the family are unspoken. Everyone just knows that soccer, or chess or…fishing is important in their lives.

And, if you want learning to be a highly important value in your home you can make that happen by the things you choose to do everyday—reading aloud, making books available, going to the local library, having your children observe you reading for pleasure and understanding. You’ll build a culture of reading for enjoyment. It will be the norm, an unspoken given.

I still look back on our family fishing trips with lots of love and satisfaction. We were together doing something we all enjoyed. It made for good memories, even if we often didn’t catch a thing.

Do you want your children to be lifelong readers? If so you can build the culture of reading in your home one story at a time.