30 days of 20 minutes of reading to kids...

I consider myself a pretty avid reader.  I also pride myself in taking my kids to the library almost once weekly if not more often.  However, this 30 day challenge of reading 20 minutes everyday to my kids, who loving being read to, was challenging.  I think it is a sign of something bigger- trying to fit activities like reading to your kids for 20 minutes is a feat with our busy lifestyles. 

I seem to be bogged down lately by projects, errands, activities for myself and the kids, let alone trying to just find time to let them play.  So I guess something needs to change to make sure I'm spending the time and energy on things that are important to me and my family.  Reading is definitely one of those things so I'm going to try and continue with the 20 minutes/day goal- however, sometimes our days get away from us or we have to travel for work, etc- so instead of putting the cap on 20 minutes every physical day- I'm hoping to look at it over a week's time.  7 days/week x 20 minutes= 140 minutes of quality time with my kids!

So recap- I read 20 minutes a day every day this month except when I was gone/traveling for a conference for work/my career, etc.  So to make up for those 5 days I missed I bulked up my reading before I traveled so I got all my minutes in for the week with them prior to travel.  I thought about calling them and reading to them over the phone, but with the time change and my son really detesting a long phone conversation I figured this was the best way to fulfill my commitment to the 30 day challenge. 

I read a lotto them- finished "Little House in the Big Woods", currently finishing "The Doll People" and of course various library books and our own books.  It was a great month of reading, I'm just really still shocked at how I thought I read to my kids a lot, but this past month fitting in 20 minutes/day seemed like a challenge comparable to long runs/mid training schedule of a marathon.