This is the scene beside my bed. The mess is a little embarrassing, but the point is that I always have lots of books sitting in that spot because I love to read, especially before falling asleep. I've read at least part of each one pictured this week, plus others that are sitting other places (neatly stacked of course).
Today was the first of our weekly summer treks to the local library. One thing I can say for myself is that I have passed down a genetic love of books and reading to my children, an obsession that I received from my own dad. Since my kids were crawling, I've been taking them to the library, and they would beg to visit Barnes & Noble long before they ever knew that Toys R Us existed. Luckily we have a very family friendly library in town with its own kids room separated off from the adult area, stocked with toys for the babies, coloring supplies for the toddlers, besides the regular library goods.
Brainy Boy and I have always been habitual readers, taking 20-30 minutes each night before falling alseep to read something. If we don't have a good book at hand, we've been known to resort to a magazine or newspaper flier. I've been worried about Little Chic, though, as she loves being read to, but she doesn't appear to be a recreational reader on her own. She reads well and does what she needs for school, but she isn't one to curl up with a book--it's just not active enough for her.
This trip was exciting, though. I generally have to put a limit on Brainy Boy's books (like "only 10 for this week") and have to require a number from Little Chic (like "at least five"). This time, rather than ferreting out all the picture books of kitties, Little Chic went to the librarian on her own, asked for a mystery, a book on cats and a few other topics, and came home with five chapter books of her own choosing. By the time we'd left the library and gotten home, she was on chapter two of the first book she opened and she was reading sections aloud to me.
I also grabbed a couple for me to read aloud to her, one being the next requirement for our Mother/Daughter book club. Although Little Chic doesn't do a lot of reading, it had the word 'club' in it so she didn't have to think twice about joining. We'll be reading The Horse and His Boy for the book club, and then I chose Stories About Cats by James Herriot since Little Chic aspires to be a vet and she is obsessed with cats at this stage in her life.
We generally set aside Tuesday evenings for library day, as it's open until 9pm and Tuesdays are Hero Guy's Fire Department Training night. We'll probably stop for ice cream on the way home too, since we did it tonight and habits like that aren't easily broken at our house. Oh, yeah - if you bump into us at the grocery store on the way home, you'll need to watch out for us. We'll all have our heads buried in one of the new books we've checked out and we won't be watching where we're going. It's really not all that hard to steer a shopping cart while your nose is in the page. We tried it tonight and it worked just fine. We only ran up on a couple of Achille's tendons.
Today was the first of our weekly summer treks to the local library. One thing I can say for myself is that I have passed down a genetic love of books and reading to my children, an obsession that I received from my own dad. Since my kids were crawling, I've been taking them to the library, and they would beg to visit Barnes & Noble long before they ever knew that Toys R Us existed. Luckily we have a very family friendly library in town with its own kids room separated off from the adult area, stocked with toys for the babies, coloring supplies for the toddlers, besides the regular library goods.
Brainy Boy and I have always been habitual readers, taking 20-30 minutes each night before falling alseep to read something. If we don't have a good book at hand, we've been known to resort to a magazine or newspaper flier. I've been worried about Little Chic, though, as she loves being read to, but she doesn't appear to be a recreational reader on her own. She reads well and does what she needs for school, but she isn't one to curl up with a book--it's just not active enough for her.
This trip was exciting, though. I generally have to put a limit on Brainy Boy's books (like "only 10 for this week") and have to require a number from Little Chic (like "at least five"). This time, rather than ferreting out all the picture books of kitties, Little Chic went to the librarian on her own, asked for a mystery, a book on cats and a few other topics, and came home with five chapter books of her own choosing. By the time we'd left the library and gotten home, she was on chapter two of the first book she opened and she was reading sections aloud to me.
I also grabbed a couple for me to read aloud to her, one being the next requirement for our Mother/Daughter book club. Although Little Chic doesn't do a lot of reading, it had the word 'club' in it so she didn't have to think twice about joining. We'll be reading The Horse and His Boy for the book club, and then I chose Stories About Cats by James Herriot since Little Chic aspires to be a vet and she is obsessed with cats at this stage in her life.
We generally set aside Tuesday evenings for library day, as it's open until 9pm and Tuesdays are Hero Guy's Fire Department Training night. We'll probably stop for ice cream on the way home too, since we did it tonight and habits like that aren't easily broken at our house. Oh, yeah - if you bump into us at the grocery store on the way home, you'll need to watch out for us. We'll all have our heads buried in one of the new books we've checked out and we won't be watching where we're going. It's really not all that hard to steer a shopping cart while your nose is in the page. We tried it tonight and it worked just fine. We only ran up on a couple of Achille's tendons.
Comments
donna
don't worry about Little Chic, she'll get into the book thing. our oldest is like your Brainy Boy, lives with a book. The no-book-at-the-table rule is her biggest obstacle in life. Laura is just starting to get into books at 10 years. Before she was climbing trees, playing with whatever, and falling asleep by 9. now unless she's really wore out she's up reading till we demand that the lights go out.
all of us here use the read-to-go-to-sleep program. who needs Ambien when you've got a good book. right now I'm finishing up The Last of the Bush Pilots, a great book about Alaska and flying. Pam is into 5 Sisters by James Fox, Lizzie; The Luckiest Girl,by Bev Cleary, Laura is reading Little House on the Prairie.
we enjoy your thinks
tim and family
Camron is the non-fiction guy and ALWAYS has a Ripley's, World Records book, any animal encyclopedia or an Eye Witness book in his hand, so that is something. I wish he would read chapter books, but even Mrs. Elmore couldn't do it!!! And when she tried it was more the Goosebump books and I personally find them creepy. He has read all the Captain Undepants books, I guess that is okay???? LOL~
~Sue