By Kimberly Blaker

What better date to celebrate Read Across America Day than March 2, the birthday of the beloved Dr. Seuss? It’s the perfect kickoff to March’s National March into Literacy Month.

The National Education Association (NEA) first introduced Read Across America Day in 1998. The NEA’s goal for the celebration is to motivate kids to become lifelong readers, thereby improving student performance. Every year, schools, public libraries, and other organizations celebrate this day with reading events for kids.

How to Promote Reading

There are many ways parents can promote a love of reading and encourage their kids to read not only during this celebration, but also year-round.

Read to kids. Begin reading to your children very early. The NEA suggests infancy is a good time to start. As your children grow, encourage them to participate in reading the story with or to you. Although your little ones may not be ready to read, they most likely have some of their favorite books or pages memorized. Making your children active participants will help develop their love for reading.

Visit the library. Think of the library as a big, free educational toy store. Help your children choose some books but also encourage them to look through shelves and select some on their own. Kids can also take home audiobooks, video games, videos, and music CDs.

Help your kids build a collection. One thing common among reading lovers is how much they enjoy having their own book collections. Help your children build personal libraries of their favorite series, author, or genre. Then give them a special shelf to store and display the collection.

Play word games. Look for board, computer, or phone games that help kids develop their reading and spelling skills and vocabulary.

Sign up for Goodreads. Through this Android and iOS app, kids can track both the books they’ve read and those they want to read. They can also check out what their friends are reading.

Subscribe to a kids’ magazine. There’s a host of children’s magazines on the market, something for every age group. A subscription will give your children something to look forward to each month and build enthusiasm for reading.

Read in front of your kids. Show little ones that reading isn’t just a school requirement, but rather a lifelong activity. Let them see you reading both to learn and for pleasure.

Form a kids’ book club. It’s a great way to build excitement for reading. Find kids who are all about the same reading level. Then decide where to hold the weekly or monthly meetings, which could be at your house, or perhaps your school or public library. You might be able to advertise the club through your children’s school or public library as well.

Set up a reading room or corner. Find a quiet, distraction-free area in your home to designate as the reading area. It should have comfy seating, perhaps even a bean bag or two, pillows, blankets, and good lighting.

Kimberly Blaker is a freelance writer. She also owns an online store, Sage Rare & Collectible Books, specializing in out-of-print, scarce, signed, and first editions; fine bindings; ephemera and more at sagerarebooks.com.