This is a business or technology blog, but if people will ask me now what is my most important business at hand, I would say that it is to teach your children well. The same way I answered before that the most important job of a CEO is not to grow the company, I guess I am more cognizant of long term thinking than when I started.

If many of us profess that we are engaging in business that we will ultimately hand over to our children, or that we are doing all these for the sake of our children, it is wise that this early, you make sure that your kids are equipped to handle life and the business when the time comes. Time should be devoted, and resources and planning should be allocated as if it were an important business venture in undertaking the proper training of values and skills to your children. And the most important of this I believe is:

THE LOVE OF READING. Nothing will equip your children more to cope the challenges and learn about the joys of life than reading. The computer will not, and the television will not. Even if the movie try to follow the storyline as closely as possible, watching the Harry Potter movie will not replace reading the book. Interests of children are short and varied, and this does require a good amount of patience and careful planning.

As much as possible, read to your children as often as you can. This will create a bonding, as well as a positive experience of the child towards reading that hopefully will follow him when he grows up. Buy many different books, and parents should set a good example. Parents who buy books, and read a lot often will have children that does too.

Children naturally will not take to reading as much as they will take to playing or watching television so efforts have to be exerted. Tie their natural interests and lead them to reading. For instance, my kids like to watch the cartoons on Walt Disney. Buying books like Mickey Mouse stories or Little Mermaid / Alladin helps. There was a time my kids were excited over Pokemon. Buy books with Pokemon stories. I was able to get the kids excited on dinosaurs after watching the cartoons, Land Before Time, where different kind of dinosaur siblings share an adventure. Lately, the Harry Potter has been the rage. We went to see the movie, and bought the Harry Potter Trivia Game. It is a very imaginative book with lots of fascinating twists and terms that kids naturally are excited about. Random quizzes about what magic chant, or the name of the magic broom, or the game they play, or who were the names of the bad guys and other plots naturally excites my children that it was almost effortless to get them to read the book.

Give rewards, or at least show interest and appreciation whenever your children finishes a book. The rewards does not have to be big, maybe a candy, ice cream, or maybe just the permission to watch more TV. Make insinuations that show children that reading is important. For instance, we would watch, “ who wants to be a millionaire?” and there would be questions that I could answer and the children could not, and I would say, “ of course, I know that. I read about that in so and so magazine etc, “, and the children will get the message that I know something they don’t because I read more. Or drop messages like, “ the person knows the answer! He must be a heavy reader.”

Try also multimedia books, in which the story is in the computer, read to you, and the characters even move. There are many CD available that encourages and teaches reading, and they can also teach the children something you can’t – proper diction and pronunciation. There are some CD where the children can choose multiple endings, and there are also CDs that allows the children to play some games while listening to the stories. For me, that is one important tool to get children on the road to the love of reading.

Of course, we all want our children ultimately to read the Bible or maybe light classics like Mark Twain’s books or great monthly magazines like the Reader’s Digest. But at this moment, it is more important that you engender the interest. If he can develop the love for reading, it will be only a matter of time when the interest will shift to many different subjects, like science or religion. My boy can probably recite at hand all the four different houses of the Hogwarts School of Harry Potter, or he can probably enumerate 50 different pocket monsters in the Pokemon series, and who or what has so and so power. He can also tell me what kind of chant or magic word that will make the broom fly, or transform the beetle into a spider etc. ON the large scheme of things, this is admittedly all useless knowledge, but it should not keep you from encouraging him to read more.

Invest in books, even if it will never be read. Then create an atmosphere conducive to reading. Books, and your active involvement in getting your children to read will probably be one of your best investments in insuring the future of your kids. Books will ultimately be the source of information and inspiration long when you cannot provide that to your children anymore.