I'd Rather Be Reading

According to my mother as soon as I could walk I would bring a stack of books to whatever adult happened to be sitting still for longer than two minutes and then turn my back to them and scoot into their lap with a smile and say, "Read me!"  Through out my childhood, teen years and now that I'm .....older, for lack of a nicer word, I would still rather be reading - always.

I didn't put much thought into how this would affect my children and I didn't make a game plan to instill a love of reading in them - not at first at least.  I just read all the time so when my children were born I did just that - read all the time.  

I would sit against the couch or up against the headboard of the bed with my infant sitting in my lap, leaning back against me then I would prop the extremely colorful, easy to read board book up against my bent knees so she was only about 12 inches away and I would read.  Often touching the picture as I said the word or bringing her 4 month old hand to the picture to associate it with the word.  Throughout the day we would read just to read and every night at bedtime we would read two books and sing two songs (this created a ritual which has been going on for over a decade now and works like a charm!).

If you've got a toddler  who is ready for the next step, recognizing words, grab a stack of paper from your recycle bin and print in nice easy-to-read handwriting some easy-to-learn words:  table, door, bed, etc.  Then tape them to that object.  Keep it fun, tape one to your butt that says "mom"  and one to dad that says "sleeping" or something else that makes your child giggle.  Point at them often and say the words.  Then take one or two down and put them on the counter and say they fell off would he (or she) mind putting them back on?  Chances are they know where the missing cards go.  And soon they'll want to make ones for every surface in the house!

As they grow older bump the words up to harder things or leave the first letter off and see if they can fill it in for you.  Or be sneaky and use words out of a book and then read that book with them, the goal is for them to be excited about recognizing words in the book and actually want to learn more and eventually to read on their own.


For older kids who are reading but not yet into chapter books, try turning the subtitles on during movies that they watch over and over...and over and over.  They will subconsciously start picking up new words.  Worked with my daughter - her reading level jumped 8 slots over one summer.  You can even be super sneaky and lower the volume just a little so they have to read the words.

For my kids (10 and 7), school seems to be sucking the fun out of reading by asking them to read a 100 pages a week (or an hour and 20 minutes for the little guy) but I'm hoping that once they're out of elementary school they'll remember that they actually LIKE reading and go back to doing it for themselves instead of to avoid study hall and the loss of Friday free-choice.

Isn't that what we do as parents?  Lay a good enough foundation so that they can survive the rigors of childhood with enough of it intact to be the kind of adults we'd like them to be? 

Also, I have guilt about not keeping up on my blog for the last year but.....I was reading ;)