Read a Book!

Ellie and Grandma reading Dr. Suess's "Mr. Brown can Moo! Can You?"

This weekend as my husband and I were sitting visiting with friends, One of them mentioned my Blog. My husband looked at me and asked" you've got to be running out of things to write about..." Then he looked at me and shook his head smiling "what am I thinking?"

I must tell you that at any given time I have twenty ideas rumbling around in my head. I let them work themselves out and then they are put down in writing in my blog. Some burst from me! And others take a little finessing. But, I am not worried about running out of ideas...

I love writing and reading!

I don't remember the exact origins of why I am this way, but I believe most of my siblings are too. So I give this one out to all my parents.

Bored, nothing to do?

"Read a book!"

We all heard it a lot growing up in my house, and it was backed up with stories read to us, and watching our parents enjoy a good book. Not to mention numerous trips to the library. We were encouraged to read even comic books. Anything that involved reading. I remember when my brother was four and getting ready for kindergarten. my mother had index cards with words for everything taped up in the house. "Light switch" on the, well you guessed it. The Light switch! Railing, yup somewhere going down the stairs on the railing was an index card with the word "Railing". And thanks to their perseverance and love of reading when I got to school I exceeded most of the class.
It was the only thing besides art and history that I excelled at in school.

My point though is you can help kids love reading  by simply showing them how it's done and reading to them.
I heard the other night on the news that the schools were going to have to bring in specialists to help the children learn to like reading.

Oh that's so sad!

Really? Wow! I thought. I can't fathom the idea .
I wrote a Blog about how I never bought toys or candy at the store. I didn't. But I would scrape every last piece of change out of my purse to buy them (my kids) a book. I was never too busy to read a story, write a book with them, or talk about a book. And  because of that, my children love reading books too.

I sit with Ellie and Mina an hour before bedtime, we read at least three books. Sometimes one over and over! Then we sing and talk about our day that we shared. And what we are going to do the next day. I love this time! I love watching them understand words and grasp stories as we read them again and again. Yup! I Moo and Cockle doodle do! I talk in Billy goat voices and, cackle like witches. And I watch the wonder of imagination being born in them.

I don't think anything we do to help our children get there is too silly or out of character.
Let's not wait till the schools have to bring in a specialist.

Read a book, volunteer to read at church, at the library, at school. Read a book yourself in public. It's not rude unless you are ignoring someone.

And yes, always answer the question, "can you read me a story?' with...

"YES!"

"Read a Book!"