I first became interested in reading as a child after observing the adult people in my life . My lawyer father seemed to be always reading. My mother, an elementary school teacher, was always busy preparing lesson plans. In my young mind, I would grow up to be like them, always reading, always writing on their desks, always thinking.

We always had children's books at home. I was third in a brood of five. I tried to read with my older sister and brother out of envy. One time, my mother caught me mimicking my older siblings. She said I was making up stories that I pretended to read from the book. 🙂 It was not a surprise that I already knew how to read English and Tagalog elementary school books before I was enrolled in Grade One. This was in 1966, when there was no pre-school yet in the Philippines.

Growing up, my older sister and I were not allowed to get out of the house to play with the neighbors' kids. We learned to become homebodies and just do basic household chores, watch tv or read books. Sadly, we were not taught how to cook, do laundry or sew. It seemed to me that no matter how poor we were, we would always have someone to help with housekeeping.

What my Father said about reading

My father loved reading so much. He would read the daily newspaper from cover to cover. He read magazines and even advertisements and flyers, almost anything just to enrich his vocabulary, learn new expressions, grow old with the times. He read a lot of foreign news, and was fascinated by articles about aircraft carriers. He would read his law books and journals. Most specially, he read the Bible.

One time, during one of his lecture sessions with his five children, he admonished us to "become voracious readers."

My parents tried their best to give us good education by enrolling me and my older sister at a private school run by nuns of the Sisters Servants of the Holy Spirit. The school had a library where my sister and I thoroughly enjoyed going to. That was where I discovered the joy of reading mystery books, classic literature and even Mills & Boon romance novels. She liked Anne Mather. I read Violet Winspear.

My sister and I were even able to collect a ton of Philippine magazines published in English, like "Women's" and "Woman". There was one big cabinet dedicated to hold our magazine collection. When we left for America in 2003, we placed the magazines in front of our house for anyone interested to get them. They were gone overnight.

How my children developed interest in reading

My four children took after me and their Dad. (God bless his soul. He left us in 2011).

When they were young, they would see Momma Jo and Papa Glen read together, each with a pocket book in one hand, while holding each other's free hand. Yes, that's how sweet their parents were! 🙂

I would read John Grisham or Scott Turrow while their Dad would read Robert Ludlum or Gore Vidal.

It was no surprise that when the two older children were starting to read at preschool, they asked for books. Their uncle and aunt from Australia obliged by sending them Disney's illustrated books, which I translated to Tagalog animatedly for the two younger ones .

I also bought them several books of illustrated Bible stories, which I paid for on installment from my meager salary as a government employee.

My children would later have a collection of Archie's, Goose Bumps, and other kid's magazines. As they got older, they read Nancy Drew, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, classic books and English and American literature that were taught in their school.

It did not occur to us then that we were different from other families. Reading was not an activity in many households in our community. Reading foreign books and literature was rare among families in our time.

Reading with Our Children

When Glen and I were raising our own family, I felt blessed that my husband and I shared the same experience. His parents were both public school teachers. They subscribed to Readers Digest and Time magazine.

One of our favorite family activities when the children were young was going to the public library. We lived in Azusa, California for two years and frequently visited the local library. When we moved to Las Vegas in 2005, we went to the library on Sahara and later the one at Spring Valley. We are now at the Southwest area, so we go to Windmill Library.

With their Dad gone, and my children now all adults, we still make it a point to go out together on family dates. Of course, we would find time to go to Barnes and Noble either on Charleston or at Town Square. We sometimes find interesting books at Goodwill too.

We all have our mini libraries of sort at our homes.

With changes in technology, we now buy books from Amazon.

I even buy used books from Alibris.

Sometimes, when my children and I call each other, we keep each other updated on what book each one is currently reading.

I would like to believe that reading has enriched the lives, minds, and imagination of our children. I am glad their Dad and I contributed to their life's journey by encouraging them to read books. And I'm so glad their Dad and I had parents who passed on the love of reading on to us.

What about you? Do you enjoy reading with your children? What books have you read together as a family?