Hello reader friends! Is it just me or is it sometimes a little bit of a drag to keep your small human alive? Sure, they bring ALL THE HAPPINESS and all the joy. However, it is really A LOT OF WORK to keep your kiddo alive.
(PS – let’s be Instagram friends!)
First things first, make peace with the fact that you will not spend all twenty four hours of the readathon reading. That is, unless you hire a sitter, or you have different supports who are willing to take care of your child the entire time. The earlier you come to grips with this reality, the sooner you’ll be able to come up with a reading action plan for the day.
Make your food ahead of time. Making sure your child is alive and attended to is already going to take away from getting through hundreds of pages during the readathon. Don’t take even more time out of your day by cooking! A little bit of prep work is going to make your day so much smoother.
Next, be prepared with your stack. Maybe you will pick books that aren’t dense and easily digested. Or perhaps you break out all of those graphic novels you have been waiting on and just saving for a good moment. I like to grab books with short titles, verse books, and children’s books from when I was actually a child.
You might also want to consider my literal favorite form of reading these days – AUDIOBOOKS. Holy moly. They are a MIRACLE! You can read and do other things at the same time. Your hands are free. So, I am currently using a free three month trial membership from Scribd and have some audiobooks queued up for the Readathon. I’ll be listening at my normal faster speed. The plan is to walk around with my phone in my pocket playing the audiobook while I change diapers and feed my child.
Sidebar: do NOT ignore your child the whole time. My child, Teddy, is so awesome and just learning everything and discovering the world, right? So I am going to attempt to read him a few picture books (Honey, Sleep Train, No More Monkeys Jumping On The Bed). I do not know ahead of time how successful this will be as he is at that constantly climbing and moving stage. He wants to explore and get into everything, not sit on my lap and be read to unless he’s really tired.
Personally, I am going to bank on Teddy’s two nap times to get some reading in. I plan on putting my phone on do not disturb mode. Next, I’ll dive into the most engaging looking books I have. If I am not grabbed then it is onto the next one. Also, lucky me he goes to bed at 7 p.m. EVERY NIGHT and I will be goddamned if we do not follow this schedule. So, I will really be getting the bulk of my reading in during these times.
So, what are your strategies for participating in a readathon while you have a little one?
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I think those are awesome ideas, I hope they work for you!! Being as prepared ahead of time as possible seems like the best way to maximize the reading time you have. Teddy is SO cute, I love that he’s already a little reader 🙂
As my little ones are 6 and 3, I had no chance to participate in the Readathon. It was too nice outside and I am apparently so cool to my children that the idea of playing without me is too much for them to take. 🙂