I had to bribe my children to read.

It started when Cristina reached Junior High and the other two were in grade school.  They never wanted to read for enjoyment.

Growing up - I made weekly treks to the Lake Forest Park library underneath the neighborhood shopping center.  It was small.  I read every book in there - sometimes more than once.  So it was disorienting that my girls could not conceive of reading a non-school book.

For their first summer reading program I offered $5 per book over 200 pages.  They were not impressed.  Bargained me up to $10.  I figured they'd read five books max.  That first year all of them read over 20.  Laughed at me for being such a sucker.

I let them buy clothing with their newfound wealth.  Too late they realized that I would have furnished their back to school wardrobes anyway.  Next year they imposed a new condition on the bribe - it had to be paid it in cash.  Which I countered with - half cash, half to their savings accounts.

In the end the strategy worked.  The girls stopped reading for dollars and found themselves in love with various authors and stories.  This translated to the fact that all of them write beautifully.

Here is Alysha's latest blog.  It puts mine to shame.