Rich Reading

You may have tangible wealth untold:
Caskets of jewels and coffers of gold.
Richer than I you can never be –
I had a mother who read to me.
-Strickland Gillilan

I’m making my kids memorize this right now. I figure if my friend can have her boys wear a shirt that says THIS… a little poem can’t hurt!

I read for hours everyday; from board books, to scriptures, to easy readers and chapter books. And I always have a few of my own scattered around the house to read bits and pieces whenever I can. We have books in every room of our house (yes, even the bathroom). Way too many books. And then we go to the library to get yet more books. Usually we are back to get new ones before we’ve even returned the first batch, and so goes the cycle of library fines and our obsession with books.

Right now we are all loving the Magic Tree House series, and I’m also surprised how many of the boys’ picks lately have been the old loved board books that they used to ask for time after time day after day. Miss J and I always have a book going together too that we read after the boys are asleep. We recently finished Ella Enchanted and boy was that a fun read! We were almost done one night when I had to leave for a meeting with just two chapters remaining. The next day I had to confess that at midnight I was annoying my husband sitting in the hallway with the bright hall light on so I could finish the book and actually fall asleep. I had read it as a youth when it was first published, and maybe even since then… but oh how delicious it was to crave and give into the craving to read and complete a real page turner. I was ready for Miss J to chasten me, but instead she was excited to see my excitement.

A friend recently introduced me to a new blog full of fabulous tips and ideas of things to do with kids. Hop on over to see her list of good books to read to your kids.

Here are some of the books (the ones I can remember) that I have read to mine:

Charlotte’s Web
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
Pollyana
The Story of Hellen Keller
Anne of Green Gables
Half Magic
Little House on the Prairie
Ramona the Pest, Ramona and Beezus – and a couple of other Ramona books

My big tip for starting to read longer chapter books, is to do it regularly. Same time, everyday. They look forward to it, and it doesn’t give them too big of gaps between chapters so they can keep up with what is happening. I used to always read during lunch time. Their mouths are busy, hands entertained and they are seated and good listeners. Now I have them trained, and often they are begging for “just one more chapter.” I also agree with Marie at Make and Takes... the more fun activities you can do that correlate with your book the better. We were obsessed with spiders during the Charlotte's Web phase, and pretended to be blind and learn to sign letters with Hellen Keller... we even checked out some braille books at the library! There are a million things you can do to make the stories come alive. Unfortunately, there are often movies that are based on the book. I NEVER let my kids watch them until after we have read the book, and then sometimes they don't even care. Mostly though, they've discovered that wonderful secret where the book is always better than the movie!

With the summer on its way we are making our list of chapter books to read together on those long lazy summer days. What's on your list?