How to Create a Special Place to Read with Your Kids

Posted by Sep 21, 2017 Book Based Activities, Books, Family Fun, Raising Readers, Reading

Do you have a favorite place to read? The Internet is full of amazing reading nooks and dream libraries. I find myself getting lost in the pictures dreaming of spending a day there. When it comes to getting kids excited about reading, you want to ensure that they have a great area that they can call their own. While we may wish for fantastic libraries that aren’t meant to be (I realize now I will never have the library from Beauty and the Beast), there are lots of ways that you can carve out a small area in your home and make it the perfect place to read. Today’s book takes a fun look at what a perfect reading area needs.

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A Place to Read was written and illustrated by Leigh Hodgkinson. It is a is a fun book about finding just the right place to enjoy your book. The story follows a little boy as he searches for the very best reading spot. The rhyming text is full of fun sounds and comparisons, and the illustrations are vivid and colorful. Kids will enjoy the silly places that the main character tries to find his reading spot, while parents will appreciate the beautiful sentiment at the end of the story.

There are lots of ways to use this story to have fun creating the perfect reading spot in your home.

Creating a Reading Area  – To encourage kids to dive into reading, create a dedicated reading space in your home. Fill it with bookshelves packed with fun and colorful books. Add comfortable seating, pillows, blankets, and good lighting. Use fabric to create a fort-like reading nook. Be creative and let your kids take part in designing the space. Use a theme to drive your decorating. Add quotes and illustrations to the walls. Let the creativity and personalities of your children guide you.

Decorate with your favorite books

Make Book Art – I have a rambunctious toddler who loves to read. We are working on book handling skills, and she does pretty well with it. However, there are some books that just can’t withstand the love that she gives them. Dust jackets never last very long in our house. Instead of leaving them on the books to be destroyed, I used the dust jackets from some of our favorite books to create some themed art for our reading corner walls.

To create this wall art, I gathered our dust jackets and measured them against stretched canvas frames of different sizes. You could also frame the dust jackets, but I liked that when I wrapped them, they looked like books hanging on the wall.

Stretch the dust jacket out and center the cover over the front of the canvas. Pull it tight and staple the inside flap from the front cover to the back of the canvas. (I used a staple gun like this one, and it made it so easy!).  Stretch the rest of the jacket tightly around the back and fold the back cover and it’s inside flap together.

Staple through both to attach to the canvas. I attached it to the wall by poking holes in the back and hanging it on nails I hammered into the wall. They are light enough that you could also use picture hanging strips.

A special place filled with things they love

A reading corner should be a place that inspires kids to want to read, as well as an area that is full of things they love. Since my daughter loves all things Disney (she definitely gets that from me!), I filled her reading corner with familiar characters.

When designing your reading corner, consider what things your child loves most. Since reading aloud can help kids with fluency and build their confidence, having lots of stuffed animal friends in their corner gives them “reading buddies” that they can read to.  

Building Your Own Corner

Do they have a favorite character, or a favorite hobby? There are tons of wonderful companies that offer furniture and accessories for all kinds of themes. Here are some great products to inspire you!

Bookshelves

Your books need a place to stay! Choose something easy to use so that kids are likely to actually put the books back. There are a lot of fun bookshelves in different shapes and themes, so you are sure to find something to suit your child’s interests!

Comfy Seating

Fill your reading corner with comfy seating so you can snuggle up together to share your favorite stories.

 

Fun Decor

Fill your reading corner with fun decorations, stuffed animal “reading buddies”, cozy blankets and more.

Having a dedicated reading space can really encourage you to take time out of your day to enjoy a good book. There are lots of ways to create a special reading corner in your home with fun products, or with things you already have around the house. Be creative and make it a space that your kids can call their own.

75 comments on “How to Create a Special Place to Read with Your Kids”

  1. I’ve got two young boys so there are lots of wonderful ideas in this post! My favourite place to read to them is snuggled up in bed.

    • Thank you! That was my goal! I never wanted to throw the dust jackets away, but I wanted to use them since we love the books so much!

  5. What a perfect idea! I’ve always wondered what to do with the dust jackets because you can’t leave them on the books, the kids will destroy them, but I feel guilty throwing them away. But to make them art, how smart! And the cozy kids reading chairs are so fun. Christmas is coming! Might have to grab one!

  7. This is such a cool idea for wall art! Now I feel bad about throwing way the covers 🙁 But I am definitely trying this DIY. Too cute not to😬 And creating such a corner for kids really helps get them
    Excited about reading we saw a difference in our sons enthusiasm about books when we created a reading book for him. Lovely post, thankyou for the diy idea!

    • Thank you! I hope you have fun creating them! I hate throwing the covers away, but it felt weird to keep them without a purpose!

  13. I love book nooks! We are moving to a new house in a month and that is one area that I’m so excited to create. A special reading nook is the best place to enjoy a book!

  21. Oh I love how you did the canvases with the book jackets! What a neat idea. I’m definitely pinning this for inspiration when I do our reading nook in the playroom!

  22. As always, you are so full of great ideas! I love love love the canvas on the wall idea with the book covers! My kids would get a kick out of that and what a great project to do together! Thanks so much for the idea!

    • Thank you! I was so excited they turned out, and my daughter was so excited to see some of her favorite books on the wall!

  27. I love your idea of creating book art! Might just have to create some book art for my son’s room. These are great ideas. Cannot wait until my kids are older and can read books without having to be constantly supervised to make sure they aren’t eating the books or ripping pages.

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