When Do I Read to My School Aged Kid?

More question than answer, so give me your best ideas!

Jan 17, 2025

Hi hi hello friends! How is your January going? Jumping back into the routines? Setting yourself up for some new reading goals? One of my favorite parts about breaks with my kids is how much I get to see our reading practice in action. The years and hours we spent poring over books before school started have instilled in my kids a love of books and reading that is one of the few ways that I feel like I am winning as a parent. No need to ask me how they do with eating, sleeping, basic bodily functions, or emotional well-being. ::awkward::

Before my kid started school, we read, a lot. It was always available, almost always a yes, and we would reach for books whenever we felt like it. Diaper bags were backed with the essential snacks, change of clothes, water, wipes, and (in our case) books. And true, some days were filled with friends, errands, and adventures and we wouldn’t find time to fit in a book. Then some days we would spend hours reading book after book after book. It was a lovely literary life.

Now my kids’ 2nd school bell (the one that means you are ABOUT TO BE LATE SO LET’S HUSTLE) is at 7:25 AM, and I pick him up at 3 PM. We have fallen into a routine of post-school playground run around — a chance for him and his BFF’s to get out all that pent-up energy amassed during their long days of listening and learning. I think this is great for them, but I also wonder if the three boys screaming into one another’s faces and then laugh-tackling one another on the play structure is the reason there are fewer and fewer children after school or if people are just truly busy this season. Hard to say. All I know is that an hour of pure adrenaline-fueled chaos helps my child come home in a much better mood. We don’t read during this and I don’t think we should. My kid just spent 7.5 hours practicing coloring and letters, dancing within his allotted square space on the carpet (I think?), or playing on his iPad (but seriously, y’all heard my eye roll with that one, right?). He needs to run around and play Dinosaurs vs Godzilla vs Aliens attack for an hour.

At 4 PM, when we finally get back home, my kid is STARVING and we start the always charming routine of negotiating what he is and isn’t allowed to eat this close to dinner time. In a (mostly failed) attempt to get my kids to still eat dinner, we came up with a deal where they have to stop eating snacks at 4:30 (we usually eat dinner around 6 PM for reference) and they have to pick a good “protein” snack which is nearly impossible with a kid who won’t eat anything resembling an egg and doesn’t like cheese. I am OPEN TO SUGGESTIONS here people. While I fend off the starving velociraptors and try to hold court in the kitchen to prep for dinner, I am not reading to my kids. Bummer.

We eat dinner together, the kids get post-dinner playtime with Dad, and then we get ready for bed.

Then, and only then (finally then) do we happily read. Part of our bedtime routine for as long as there has been a bedtime is books. Each kid picks out one picture book, read by Dad, and then I read a “lights out” chapter book. Goodnight, rinse & repeat.

I miss the casual read. When does my little dude, who LOVES a good book, get to just sit and savor the story? Who sits and cozies up with him to read a good book? We still try to practice good literary habits, but it is significantly harder to do now that we have started school, and I imagine it only gets harder the older they get and the more they start to do. After-school clubs? Sports? Playdates with friends? I guess this is part of letting go and hoping that whatever I have instilled in him is going to take hold and carry over as he grows into a bigger and more independent little human.

I recognize that I am lamenting a very specific and very privileged situation, applicable only to people who stay home with their kids. I get that even getting those five years to cuddle up and casually read whenever it struck our fancy was a real luxury. For those of you working jobs, when do you sneak in storytime? Weekends? Evenings? Poems at breakfast? However you are doing it, let us celebrate raising kids who get to find the magic that a story holds!

FROM THE STAX

I LIVED INSIDE A WHALE by Xin Li

Emma is just looking for a quiet place to read a good book, but her home life is LOUD LOUD LOUD. We can relate! This story offers a workaround solution both with a friend and for the problem at large — become the storyteller and command the room into an enraptured silence! Part celebration of story, part celebration of stage, part lesson in friendship, with just a wink of imagination magic. Also, the little girl creates a whale cutout over her door to imagine that she gets eaten by a whale and I love love love it. I want to make a whale out of all my doorways.

I CANNOT DRAW A BICYCLE by Charise Mericle Harper

An interactive book where the characters of Cat and Horse speak to the narrator to explain that they cannot draw a bicycle, but they are willing to give it a try! With humor and fun, I love how this book introduces drawing as composite shapes put together to create form. With a handful of basic shapes, we can create all kinds of things!

IM A UNICORN by Helen Yoon

This adorable calf is pretty sure he is a unicorn until he does a little research. Demanded on a near-daily basis around here, we love this little one-horned cow who doesn’t quite give up. In true kid fashion, there is some potty humor, but sprinkled with rainbow magic to make it more family-friendly.

NIGHT STORIES by Liniers

Siblings trying to fall asleep tell one another spooky ghost stories in the night. The three tales are modern takes on traditional Latino ghost stories, and the forward and afterword by David Bowles offer a deep dive into the stories and their origins. More spine-tickling than spine-chilling, a perfect introduction to spooky stories for the early elementary. If you haven’t introduced your kids to comics, these Toon Graphic collections are a great place to start! I’d recommend this one for the Halloween season, but it also is fun year-round. My littlest is now obsessed with saying “the HEEBIE JEEBIES” and it IS as cute as it sounds.

LITTLE I by Micheal Hall

One of my favorite books discovered in 2024 was Red by Micheal Hall, so I was extra excited to give this one a go. A book by an author I like featuring the alphabet? How could I say no? And my kids did love it, but I was a little underwhelmed by it, TBH. Partially, I didn’t love spell-reading each word aloud (once you read the book, you’ll get what I mean) even though I do think it is an excellent learning tool. My older child liked the clever way the punctuation is introduced and then hidden on the page, like a seek-and-find puzzle, but I felt that put the book on a higher level than it initially seemed it was for, and I couldn’t decide what was the target age for the book. Despite my less-than-enthusiastic review, my kids loved Little i and asked for it over and over.

I mentioned this last week too, sometimes part of raising enthusiastic readers is leaning into the books they love.

So, if you are past the days of casual reading on demand, tell me, when is your favorite time to sneak some books into your busy days?