With Father’s Day approaching it has caused me to reflect on my own father and the lessons he has taught me. One thing that stands out in my mind, is his love of reading. Fathers who love to read end up reading with their kids in a very organic way. It is part of their family culture. Without saying anything we knew that, “in this family, we like to read”.

My father was the one who would take me to the library on Saturday mornings to pick out as many books as I could carry. Once home I would then begin to take all my bedding and pillows, put them in the bathtub and call it my reading sanctuary where I would promptly read my library books. (was I a weird kid or did anyone else do that?)

For my father, library trips, reading at the breakfast table, and bedtime stories happened naturally, but for some that might not be the case. I just discovered that there is a program called Fathers Reading Every Day (FRED). It is designed to encourage fathers, grandfathers, and other positive male role models to read to their children on a daily basis. The program aims to increase father involvement in children's literacy development and to improve the quality of father-child relationships.

If you have a father who loves to read, or even who you wish would read more, a great Father’s Day gift is a book, or a kindle gift card. Give him one of these cute bookmarks to go with it. Hopefully you can inspire the reader in the father in your life.