I can remember when our children were young and we loved to read to them. I so wanted the kids to learn to enjoy books like I did as a child and still do.

So, my husband and I wondered, how do you help a child to enjoy reading? Before our children could talk to us they started asking for their favorite books to be read over, and over, and did I mention over again!

Well, my husband started improvising with the stories. He would make a big production out of using voices and arm movements, you know, great story telling antics. Then he began to change the story a little. Boy did that get their attention!

Nothing got past them. They knew those stories word for word and nobody was going to change that! They would be up jumping up and down, "That's not how it goes!" they would shout. So he would start over where he got off track and go for awhile until he thought he could trick them again.

Of course they were totally attentive, and he could not trick them at all. Any story change and they would be up jumping again shouting for him to stop. This was all in fun and they knew it.

Soon we were playing parts and almost charades. We knew we were getting carried away when we had friends get into the act and for a few years while the kids were teens we actually had everything as an excuse with our friends to get together and play these books. Of course our friends had kids too.

I really miss some of those days. Our daughter's friends would always rather be at our house.

So, I want you to think about this and I am asking you, how do you help a child to enjoy reading? It only takes a few minutes a day and you could ramp it up a little. You, just like us, may enjoy reading to your children so much, that it takes on a life of its own.

To this day, my son likes to entertain the neighbor's kids. (He has no children of his own yet). And my daughter's husband loves to entertain the grandkids like we did. We feel so blessed to see him reading with all those voices. I am sure that as the kids get older, they will start acting them out. I will make sure of that because I will be there helping.

In the end, I found that life answered our question about how to help a child to enjoy reading. Life's answer sort of sneaked up on us, and before we knew it our kids loved to read.

Happy reading!