Monday, October 17, 2011

Reading

I love to read and I want my kids to love to read too.

Sadly, though, I haven't been that great about being purposeful about reading to my kids while we are home. We always read bedtime stories, but we haven't ever really been consistent about setting aside time throughout the day to just sit and read together. Last week I did a little experiment...I brought out a bunch of different picture books and stories and we sat on the living room floor together and read. And read. And read. It was wonderful and it made me realize what a fun and beautiful bonding time we have been missing! Easton mostly just chewed on board books but Lauren seemed to really soak this special time up.

Then, last night, as I was catching up on blogs I read this post from one of my favorite bloggers. She found an article HERE about reading aloud chapter books to pre-schoolers. The thought behind it fascinated me and made A TON of sense! It seemed spot on to me from what I already know as an educator and what I already know about my sweet girl!

So, now I am so excited to decide what chapter book we are going to start with. I found a great list of ideas here and I think we will start small and work our way up. I can't wait!!!!

2 comments :

  1. My daughter is now 6 and in school, but I started reading her chapter books when she was little during her at home years and we loved it! We read the Ramona series (actually reading the last one now), many of the American Girl series (which she loved and listened to even though they are geared for older girls), and more. Made so many memories and I think it did help her reading skills based on her progress in school so far. We still do it...in addition to Ramona's World we are also almost finished with Charlotte's Web. I even read her Anne of Green Gables when I would nurse her as an infant (crazy but true!!!). Enjoy your books, and the special time with your sweet little ones!

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  2. oh my goodness...no joke that I was just having this same conversation last night during conferences with a parent and my student teacher! There is a book out at the book fair called The Reading Promise about a girl and her dad that promised to read 100 or 1000 (pretty big difference) nights in a row. Anyway, that got me thinking about wanting to read a chapter book to Amelia, but not knowing if it was appropriate. After reading your post a the linked posts, I am ready to go with it! Thanks for sharing your thoughts!!!!

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