I have been thinking lately how much I love, love, love reading books with my boys. There are some "good mom" things that I don't like doing. Like, I don't really love "playing" with them--sitting and pushing a train around the train tracks for hours is just draining for me. And I'm not great at pretending or playing long extended games of hide and seek or telling really good bedtime stories--those are daddy's specialties. But oh, I love reading with them. It warms my heart to see how they both gravitate towards books so easily. Graham loves to crawl/walk over to the book basket in the corner and drag a book over to us to read to him--at least fifteen times a day. And as long as I'm not making dinner, I am always so happy to stop what I'm doing to read to him--because I just love that he loves to read with me. I sometimes get tired of the same books over and over again, but we keep a pretty good rotation going at the library, I get recommendations for books from a few websites and places, and when I get tired I just take them back to the library and we check out a whole new set of books.
But lately, the thing that has really been making me happy is reading chapter books aloud with Dane. He has really good reading comprehension (or listening comprehension) and he listens to Tommy's long, complicated bedtime stories with total delight. So I figured he may not need books with tons of pictures--and that he could handle a longer and more complicated plot that isn't resolved in a few minutes. I looked up what are some good chapter books to read aloud and we have been reading The Children of Noisy Village together, by the author of Pippi Longstocking, and I. Am. Just. Loving. It. Dane listens so happily and remembers everything we read the previous days and giggles at the funny parts, and it's such a cute story and reminds me so much of the books I read and loved as a kid. The chapters are very short and sweet and it just tells the story of these kids and their little adventures. Starting to read chapter books just opens up a WHOLE NEW WORLD of reading for us, and I just keep thinking of all the books I want to read with him! The Boxcar Children! Little House on the Prairie! Mary Poppins! Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle! Oh, man, the possibilities are endless. Obviously he's not ready for all of those but someday soon he will be. And I am just so looking forward to continuing reading with him, and with Graham. I hope that they continue to love to read this much as they get older. And I hope that I am able to continue to give them the time to help them and future kids learn to love reading.
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