Monday, October 6, 2008

I want to read 'self!

Almost every morning, just minutes before Julia and I pick up David from school, we could be found in our local library. As Julia sits in a children's corner "reading" the books she picked, I look for some new books to bring home. David gets so excited when he comes home and he has a fresh pile of books to go through.
Julia loves when we read to her. But what she likes even more is "reading" by herself. When I ask her if I could read stories to her, she exclaims "No! I want to read it 'self!". As of now, her favorite stories are "Monkey and Me" and "Peter Pan"... still. She recites an entire "Monkey and Me" which doesn't have that many words, but still it surprises me as David didn't do it at her age. She remembers the titles of the books I had read to her only once before.


If Julia loves the books, David is obsessed with them. He "reads" them as soon as he wakes up, at school (and comes home with scratches when another kid tries to pull it away from him), as soon as he comes home from school, before he takes his nap, in the bathroom, while I am cooking dinner and before his bedtime. His favorite book these days? Little Bunny Foo Foo.
A few months ago we stopped letting the kids watch tv not because I think tv is evil (are you kidding me, once the kids are asleep I watch reruns of "House" for hours every night). We do have movie nights twice or so a month. On that particular night I make something new for dinner that David wouldn't eat if his life depended on it. And guess what? He'll take a few bites of it. So, our next movie is "Planet Earth" which I am personally looking forward to.
I noticed that David doesn't learn anything from either Sesame Street or Curious George and I know very well the same can't be said about other kids. I used to call David's name forever while he was staring at the tv and he would never respond to me. On the other hand, while reading the stories both kids are alert. Sometimes I stop to make sure they are paying attention and they will continue a sentence. David learned about mushrooms, musical instruments, Halloween, animals through books. A few months ago we were reading a story about a boy helping his father with the house chores. That night as I was preparing dinner and setting a table, David opened a kitchen drawer and took out four forks and set them on the table. Tonight, he pulled out the same drawer and took out two small forks for himself and Julia, two larger ones and two knives for Seth and me and set them on our table exactly the same way as I always do. Seth and I almost fell over. David could be really helpful when he puts his mind to it.
I am so looking forward to them reading on their own. I really hope as I am sure every parent out there does that our kids will grow to be avid readers.

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