Families Reading Every Day is a program designed to encourage families to read to the children in their lives. With family life style’s getting busier and children watching more television and being involved with playing video games, parents find it difficult to have a meaningful relationships with their children. Studies, also, show that children who are read to for at least 20 minutes a day are more likely to do better in school and not have as many discipline problems. By reading to their children, families become more involved and interested in what is going on in the child’s life. This program shows children that reading is fun and it is something they can do together as a family.

     This program was implemented by the Bell County Family and Consumer Science Extension Advisory Council, Lone Jack School Center Library, Pineville School Family Resource Center and Bell Whitley Early Head Start. Fifteen families read books every day to their child/ren for one month. During the first two weeks, they were to read at least 15 minutes daily with their child. Then the last two weeks they were to increase the time to 30 minutes daily. 

      The 15 families that completed the program read a total of 10,147 minutes as a whole (169 hours). The family reading the most minutes had a total of 1832 minutes (30 hours). After the program ended, each family completed an exit survey which showed that 90% of the families said that FRED improved the quality of the time they spent with their child and improved my relationship with my child. 90% of the families stated that this program improved their child’s vocabulary and ability to count. One parent stated that “because of FRED my relationship with my boys has improved and their relationship with each other has improved.” 100 % of the families said they would recommend this program to other parents.