One of my favorite things to do is to read to my boys. Since I was in my 20's - LONG before I was thinking about having kids - I started collecting childrens books. There are so many incredible books out there! Some of my favorites are the classics: "Good night moon," "The Giving Tree" and "Guess How Much I Love You." But I also love some of the less traditional books, especially by Dav Pilkey. He wrote "Dog Breath" and "The Halloweener," in addition to the "Captain Underpants" series which is Owen and Sam's current favorites. (I was soooo proud of them when they chose to spend their allowances on new Captain Underpants books!) We must have hundreds of books at the house and as much as I hate stumbling over all the toys, the books never bother me.
I have a rule for myself that I'm very impressed to say I've adhered to since Owen was born. No matter what I'm doing, if one of the kids asks me to read to them I stop and do it. Of course it's hard when I'm in the middle of cooking dinner and sometimes it takes me a minute or two to pull away, but I make it a point to sit down and cuddle them on my lap for just a few minutes so they will know the value of reading. William is not even 18 months old and he already understands this rule. He comes to me with a book in hand and is 100% confident he'll be getting a little "Mama time."
A friend of mine's dad had another rule that I will adopt as the kids get older. He told them lights out at 8pm, but if you're reading you can stay up as late as you want. He made two out of his three kids VORACIOUS readers - the last one preferred his sleep, I guess.
As you can see from the picture above, Owen is really starting to read. He is one of the top readers in his kindergarten class. He enjoys chapter books now when I'm reading to him and he stops me whenever I read a word he doesn't understand (another rule of mine.) Sammy is reading, but doesn't realize it. He won't start kindergarten for another 15 months and I am fully confident he will be reading at a first grade level by that time. I'm so proud of them and THRILLED that all those years of reading to them is finally paying off!
What are some of your favorite children's books?
2 comments:
That is the most awesome thing to do as a parent. My hubs teaches 5th grade and he tells the parents that 5th grade is still not too old to read to their kids sometimes. 2 of my 3 are readers. (the oldest likes magazines like Dad). When my youngest was in pre-K the teacher read him "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus" and others by Mo Willems. It was new to me and we got them all and I love them.
The Night at Museum 2 movie was of course not as good as the first but I enjoyed being out with them at the movies. Saw the preview for the guinea pig movie--very cute. Anyway, that is great that you have some good readers in the house.
Also we had the "Let's have kids chit chat when we were married 7.5 years. Started trying at 8 years married. He was born after 9 years married (oldest son is about to turn 13). Everyone was so surprised as we had told family we weren't going to have kids.
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