Loving Books

I have a special sentimentality for books. I still go back to my parents house and look through the books they used to read me when I was a child. I grab up my favorite copies of books at garage sales(no matter how many copies I already have)and I love to lay in bed at the end of the day with a good biography. I am so enriched by the books that other people write and illustrate. I guess that's why I thought it would be important to pass my love of books on to my children. Then also,if you watch PBS, you know that "experts say reading with your child is the best way to help them learn to read".

So, as soon as Mechanism was old enough to sit in the stroller, off we went to the library. We went to story time, and checked out more books than we could carry. We didn't stay in the children's section either. While children's books are very wonderful, my kids love to peruse the adult science, nature, and engineering shelves as well. We sat on the sofa and read them all...again and again. I enjoyed it as much as he did, and we started collecting our own books when ever we could.

I set up little reading nooks all over the houses we lived in. No matter where we lived, there had to be a low, soft spot with all kinds of books on shelves or in crates or just stacked on the floor, and Mechanism was attracted to these reading nooks like a little magnet. He spent hours looking at books. It never seemed to bother him that he couldn't read the words.

Then came Texas. He didn't like to be held, let alone sit on my lap for a story. But I kept reading aloud while Texas played cars or colored, and he started coming over to see the pictures. Now he likes to be read to almost as much as Mechanism.

Now, learning to read is a whole nother issue! It can be very hard work, unless you happen to have one of those kids who teaches themselves to read when they are three. But I had to teach both of mine the hard way. We learned phonics, which helped a lot, and we did a lot of snuggly, mommy and me reading time. Texas is still struggling through the mommy and me times, but I have patience and hope knowing that Mechanism
struggled also. Then he found a serries of chapter books he really wanted to read and never looked back. I think that when the hard work of reading came for my boys, it helped them to already love books. They already knew reading as a comftrable, time they enjoyed with me, and the having to learn to read part was softened by that.

Now we try to take at least a half an hour a day for quiet reading time, especially in the summer. It kind of replaces nap time. We all lay down somewhere after lunch and enjoy a book or two. I don't get to read my own books at reading time yet, but as soon as Texas gets off and running, I'll be able to enjoy that too.