Books.

We love books around here.  I didn't start reading to the kids in the womb, but as they have grown up books have been an important part of our household and our homeschool.  We go to the library at least once a week and bring home lots of books each time.  Last week we carried so many books back in at once I had this ridiculous thought that one of the librarians was going to yell "all available librarians to the front desk, stat!" but no one did and we returned them quietly.  In addition to taking the kids to the library and letting them check out whatever they are interested in, I sometimes pick up books that I think they might be interested in and bring them home.  Often, I just lay the books on the couch or the kitchen table and wait and before I know it, one of the kids will bring the book to me and tell me something interesting that they've read in it.  I also sometimes assign books to read for school.  These are usually not books we'd want to do as a read-aloud  and are almost exclusively nonfiction instructional books.  We also read aloud each night for 30 minutes or so.  These are fiction and these are fun.  This way we've read together a bunch of books over the years.  Collectively, we love Ranger's Apprentice, Harry Potter, a bunch of the Madeline L'Engle books and Hank The Cow Dog!