One of my favorite things is walking into the room to find my 2-year-old son plopped down on the ground "reading" a book. He looks at each page intently before turning to the next. And when he finishes that book, he grabs another from the shelf and repeats the process, sometime for more than 10 minutes.
My 4-year-old daughter loves to "read" too, but she mostly prefers to be read to.
Of all the things we have done wrong as parents, one thing we feel like we did right was putting a book case of children's book in the room where we spend most of our time, within easy reach of our children.
My husband was telling me about a book he read that talks about setting yourself up for success. It tells about a woman who really wanted to go far in her profession, which required her to read academic journals at home in the evening. However, somehow she ended up watching TV every night instead. The book suggested the reason why wasn't merely a matter of a lack of self control. She had set herself up for failure by having her main living space set up as a home theater. (The same thing, the authors suggest, goes for healthful eating. When your fridge and cupboards are packed full of junk food, it's a recipe for disaster if you want to eat well.) OK, so my point in bringing this up is, I really think one key to children learning to love to read is setting them up for success by making lots of books readily available to them.
When our daughter was a baby, I remember wanting a lot of books, but not having many and not feeling like I could afford to buy many. So we relied on the library heavily. When I was a brand new mom, I was freaked out at the thought of all the germs lurking on library books since you can't really clean or sanitize them. I've managed to push it out of my mind and not worry about it. I really don't think my kids have ever gotten sick from a book--most germs don't live on a non-living surface very long. And if my kids did catch a little cold or something once or twice because of a library book or secondhand book, it would still totally be worth it. Our favorite thing lately is to buy secondhand books from the library (there are many available at our library and they are only $.50 or $1) and at yard sales.
There is nothing quite like snuggling up with a good book. And I'm so glad my kids are finding this joy too.
Happy reading!
My 4-year-old daughter loves to "read" too, but she mostly prefers to be read to.
Of all the things we have done wrong as parents, one thing we feel like we did right was putting a book case of children's book in the room where we spend most of our time, within easy reach of our children.
My husband was telling me about a book he read that talks about setting yourself up for success. It tells about a woman who really wanted to go far in her profession, which required her to read academic journals at home in the evening. However, somehow she ended up watching TV every night instead. The book suggested the reason why wasn't merely a matter of a lack of self control. She had set herself up for failure by having her main living space set up as a home theater. (The same thing, the authors suggest, goes for healthful eating. When your fridge and cupboards are packed full of junk food, it's a recipe for disaster if you want to eat well.) OK, so my point in bringing this up is, I really think one key to children learning to love to read is setting them up for success by making lots of books readily available to them.
When our daughter was a baby, I remember wanting a lot of books, but not having many and not feeling like I could afford to buy many. So we relied on the library heavily. When I was a brand new mom, I was freaked out at the thought of all the germs lurking on library books since you can't really clean or sanitize them. I've managed to push it out of my mind and not worry about it. I really don't think my kids have ever gotten sick from a book--most germs don't live on a non-living surface very long. And if my kids did catch a little cold or something once or twice because of a library book or secondhand book, it would still totally be worth it. Our favorite thing lately is to buy secondhand books from the library (there are many available at our library and they are only $.50 or $1) and at yard sales.
There is nothing quite like snuggling up with a good book. And I'm so glad my kids are finding this joy too.
Happy reading!
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