Learning to Love to Read + A $50 Giveaway

This post was sponsored on behalf of Zenni Optical via One2One Network. All opinions stated are my own.

I’ll admit that the title of this post is a little deceptive. I say that because, really, Alea has always loved to read as long as I can remember. For one of my baby showers my mom had guests bring their favorite book in lieu of a card and I remember being so excited to start building Alea’s book collection. I used to read “On the Night You Were Born” to her when she was just days old while rocking her in a rocking chair. I remember starting to read to her before bed on a nightly basis when she was probably too young to really grasp the concept. And I remember unpacking boxes and boxes of books from my childhood and placing them on the handmade bookshelf made for me by my Grandpa that I was then passing down to Alea.

Books and reading have always played a very big part in my life and I’m so happy that they’re a big part of Alea’s life, too. This summer I’ve seen her love of reading grow even more with the summer reading program at the library. Cory, Alea and I read over 24 hours together and she earned lots of fun prizes along the way, including a pool party at our local pool. It was just so much fun and even though our reading was driven by incentive, it became more of a habit for us the more that we read.

My favorite thing is when she turns off her morning cartoons and walks off to her room or her little reading corner downstairs to read. We’ve ready many, many books this summer and gained some new favorite authors, but one of Alea’s all-time favorites is Dr. Suess. Just take a look at this video and you’ll see what I mean!

There really are books for just about everyone from just about every walk of life. If there’s one thing kids these days need more of, it’s more time reading with their parents. It’s so easy to just sit your kiddo down in front of the TV so you can get the dishes or the laundry done, but it’s just as easy to sit them down in front of a pile of books, too. And it’s even more fun to let the dishes go for a little while longer and sit down with your child to read.

This summer, Zenni Optical is all about keeping kids reading and engaged in books while schools out. We still have a little bit of summer left. Get your kids back-to-school ready by reading to them and letting them read to you, too! You can encourage their love of reading or help them to love books even more by:

1. Letting them act out their favorite scene from their favorite book.
2. Writing a list of their favorite summer reading books.
3. Taking books with you on vacation to either read in the car, on the beach, or even listening to an audiobook during a long car ride. (That last one is my new guilty pleasure during my work commute!)
4. Create a costume to emulate their favorite book character.
5. Walk, run, or ride your bike to your local library and let them choose their own books to borrow!

And if your kids are visually impaired, like myself, Zenni Optical has a great selection of durable, cute, and kid-friendly specs! They’re all extremely affordable, too, so you won’t break the back-to-school budget. They’re durable glasses, but if they should break at least your not out say $300 like glasses from our eye doctor would cost! Yikes!

Enter here to win $50 to Zenni Optical!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

What author or series of books is your kid’s favorite?