Kevin's Watch

I've been reading to my boys since they were babies.
Last year I started reading to Isaac, who is now six, novels. We started with th Hobbit, did the first two Harry Potters, the Lion and the Which, and are now on Charlie and the Chocolait Factory.
He gets into them so much...When we were reading the Hobbit, he made himself a 'Sting", during HP, he made wants and robes, and flying brromsticks, and he still figures he can charm our car into flying. During TLWATW, we made himself a bow and arrow set, and now he carries around his home-made 'Golden-Ticket' wherever he goes.

Reading to them does more than just enlighten their imagination...he is one of the top readers in his class, and has astarted helping the slower kids.
During 'Book-Time' at home now in the evenings, he gets a chapter or two read to him, and he reads the "Childrens" books to his brother Adam.

Dora the Explorer, Blue's Clues, and the Polar Express are fine--but nothing ignites their imagination and thought patterns as reading.

-Jut thought I'd brag about my son for a bit..I'm done now!

Keep up the fantastic work!!!

my dad was the same. we didn't have formal reading hour or anything but he and my mom, and my paternal grandmother all read to me endlessly. as a result (i think) i could read very early, have high reading comprehension, tested out of English 101 on my act scores, and read voraciously.

reading is fundamental. heh.

It's one of my favorite things to do with my kids.
It's amazing to experience them learning to read.

Your post made me feel bad about how I've slacked off taking the extra time to read with them.
Thanks!

My son is now asking me to read him a book!

What great timing he has

Just hit the 150 mark for Toy Story with Adrien, up to the 5th read of Green Eggs and Ham.

we read to our grandson all the time. he loves trains mostly.

my parents would buy me anything i wanted to read. i had a subscription to Classics Illustrated, and when I got older: Time and Isaac Asimov. I wore out my library card.

Drew, you are awesome!

I was a lucky child, too. I saw my parents reading a lot, and wanted to be just like them, as most childen do. I could go to my parents at any time and ask what a word meant, and they were always happy to oblige with a definition, and encouraged me to continue asking.

My mother made sure I had a continual supply of books, and every time she gave me a new book, they seemed to get better and better.

I just reread one of my eternal favorite childrens books, The Saturdays, by Elizabeth Enright. It still brings me back to the wonders of childhood.

I want to point out that many convicts are unable to read. I don't want to get bogged down in a political fight. i'm just giving info that seems important here. reading is fundamental. support any literacy programs in your area.

When my children were younger, I volunteered at the local elementary school, in a program for literacy for first graders. One of the main things they wanted me to do was to take the kids off one at a time and read to them. They said that nothing fosters literacy as much as being read to when you are little.

Beorn shocked me by reading the first Harry Potter to me when he was in kindergarten. We had started it a chapter at a time until I lost my voice for six weeks due to a severe cough. When we startd up agin, he kept saying things like "Oh, this is a good part," or "You're really going to like this." I finally closed the book and asked if it was being read aloud at school. He hung is head and said no, but that he got tired of waiting for my voice to come back, so he read it himself.

I didn't believe him, so I gave him the book to read from where I left off. His pronunciation was terrible (stupid whole language reading progra instead of phonics), but he comprehended all of the vocabulary and knew exactly what was going on.

I wa so impressed, I even told a newpaper reporter about this and told her to encourage all parents read HP to their kids to encourage them to read for themselves. You can see the article and a picture of beorn at the time at Wild About Potter.

Of course, we found out a couple of years later that early reading skills is very common among children with Beorn's condition, and that the HP would not necessarily encourage other kindergartners to read on their own. Man, did I feel like a fool...

Menolly: nothing wrong with being excited and wanting to share that with other folks.

and great article.

Gotta agree with Fist, and all you others as well. As I've mentioned before, I was read to extensively by my parents, fiction, poetry, you name it, and was taught to read young because my folks couldn't keep up. It's a habit that has lasted the rest of my life.

--A

Menolly--That is a great story--I'm impressed that Isaac can read Fox in Socks!!

Condition or not, If you weren't reading to him in the first place, he wouldn't have been able to read it.

awww... :::blushing:::

Thanks all. I am proud of my son, challenges and all. and from what I've seen of Beorn's classmates back then, reading Fox in Socks at six years old is very impressive!!

hey all, i was at our friends of the library meeting tonight. we are doing a fund raiser this weekened at the the town's Christmas on the square. your local library can use volunteers and may even have a friend of the library program. ask, join, donate. our library got some 30 odd cds from me, Usivius and mrsnull. expand your library music selection.

this has been a public service announcement.

We also belong to "the friends of the library".
I love how the HP chapters are about 30 minutes in length to read. When I read a chapter at night, my youngest (about 3 at the time) used to say "we are watching Harry Potter". My oldest used to dress up in wizard robes and carry his owl as well. My daughter couldn't wait for the next night and used to sneak to read ahead. My youngest does have reading problems, but it would have been a lot worse if he was never read to. He has come a long way!

This is a great thread!

Finally branching out into other realms (because Adrien finally succeeded on tearing Toy Story to pieces): Wacky Wednesday, Are You My Mother?, Guess How Much I Love You?, Monsters Inc., Spot Goes to the Circus ( a classic!), I Can Read With My Eyes Shut and the occasional Nemo. It's time to bring in the "Heavy Hitters": Go, Dog, Go! Hop on Pop, Curious George, Put Me in the Zoo, Horton Hears a Who...woo hoo!

khat: great to see another friend of the library member!

Thanks Sarge - gotta make a list from here, check to see if available on-line and then spend the afternoon with my kids & mother-in-law at the library! Or just leave Mom at home and the kids and I can walk.

we are starting a fundraiser, julie found a company that makes great book bags. really nice. need to return some books.