On an average Sunday, long after the chores are completed, you can find our brood scattered around the property, elbows deep in adventures and fun.

My eldest daughter prefers somewhere warm and quiet, without a lot of external stimulation. She love her historical sci-fi, mythology and humour. Percy Jackson being one of her favourite characters, she is always saving her spending money to purchase the latest and greatest novel from the series.

My middle daughter is a bedtime reader. Diving into her pages before we tell her (for the third time) to please turn out the light. She says that reading before she sleeps starts her dreams off right, and allows her mind to bring the story with her through the night.

Our littlest has just started down the first stepping stones of reading. He went from the frustrated Grade 1 boy, who would beg us to please read the words, to a confident kid who reads to US every night with emotion and feeling in his words. I love watching him as he goes through his school readers, stopping to soak in every detail of the pictures and he explores the story. To witness him listen to the words he is reading, and pull the understanding from the page is amazing.

As a passionate reader myself, I always felt that by giving our kids the key to loving books we open their minds to anything. They can learn anything, be anything, even just for a moment and experience the thoughts and feelings of others through the pages of their books. They can put themselves in their characters’ shoes and go through the steps of making hard choices, see the results of decisions made by others in the story, and most importantly have the building blocks of their ability to think and reason established.

The foundation for our kids was set in primary school, through photocopied learn to read books, and pages of vocabulary words. But these books get tattered and torn, and (especially if your child is like my son) they want new stories, new adventures and different books to dive into as they eat up the ones in the classroom.

This year Indigo announced the recipients of their Love of Reading Grant on May 11th, 2016. This grant helps to close the gap in library funding, which provides students and teachers with the much-needed resources to foster a love of reading and increase literacy among Canadian children. Twenty five high-needs elementary schools across Canada will benefit from the Foundation’s $1.5 million annual grant commitment, which will help to refresh these schools libraries and entice their school kids back into them.

For many children their school library is the first place they are able to discover their love of reading.  With regular exposure and a range of titles to reach even the most discerning primary school child, their curiosity can be pulled into the titles that appeal.

Now, in our house, after years of books being accumulated, hand-me-downs from our cousins and two parents who understand the importance of a library for our kids, our shelves are full. But for many families, the school library is the only place kids have access to this opportunity to dive into a novel and explore the world. Be sure to support the Indigo Love Of Reading Foundation, and your local school library through their website at www.loveofreading.org

Help kids across Canada get the resources they need to inspire a lifelong love of reading, and to open the doors to their imagination, social and cognitive development that will be the foundation of their future success.

Help kids across Canada get the resources they need to inspire a life long love of reading, and to open the doors to their imagination, social and cognitive development that will be the foundation of their future success.