I think everyone has gotten the point that I read a lot. My three girls read a lot, too. I like to think they received my reading gene, but I also believe that early habits and exposure to books added to their love of reading.
My kids didn't keep stuffed animals in their cribs. (well, maybe one) They kept books. I have a fond memory of watching my second daughter, when she was about ten months, crawl over to a stack of picture books. She sat there and turned pages for twenty minutes, utterly entranced. To a mom whose first daughter wanted mom to constantly read to her, this was heaven. No, that's not my kid. Mine are much cuter. :)
Pat the Bunny, Goodnight Moon, Barnyard Dance, Go, Dog, Go, Are You My Mother? were all staples in our house. I purchased Pat the Bunny and all the coordinating books several times because curious little fingers would destroy the hands-on pages within months. When my sister and niece had babies, I bought these books for them.
At parent's night at school this year, the principal put up a chart that showed the minutes of a child's daily reading compared to their academic level percentiles. I can't remember the exact numbers, but children who read more than 30 minutes a day were in the very top percentiles. Children who read a minute and a half a day were at the bottom.
A minute and a half?!? What are they reading? Billboards?
That is why I don't remember the exact numbers. I was blown away by the concept of children who only read for such a short time. When my middle daughter was six, I was concerned because she didn't want to read. She liked me reading to her, but when I had her sound out the words she would do it for three minutes and then look anywhere but the page. At her yearly eye appointment, the eye doctor said to her, "When you read, are there sometimes two words where you think there should be one?" My daughter nodded and my jaw dropped. She'd been seeing double and didn't know it was wrong. No wonder she couldn't concentrate on a book. I felt horrible. She picked out cute little Princess Jasmine reading glasses and was immediately back to her original enthusiasm for reading.
School and pediatrician screenings didn't catch her problem. I'm so thankful I took my kids to regular eye check ups starting at age three. My mom didn't take me to the eye doctor until the fifth grade when I told her I couldn't see the blackboard. I can't help but wonder how many subtle eye problems could be affecting other children's reading habits.
Did your kids like books when they were tiny? Did it continue into school?
8 comments:
Being a major reader myself, I read to my kids constantly. All of my kids didn't read a lot for pleasure because they were so involved in sports and their outside projects. But my oldest daughter reads a lot as an adult and reads to her girls several times a day. My other daughter reads my books and some her sister recommends but she fills in her 'reading' time with her hobbies, but they, she and her husband, read to the kids every night when they go to bed. My oldest son in grade school would argue with the teacher when they had to do book reports. He didn't want to read fiction he wanted to read nonfiction books about trucks, tractors, and airplanes. As an adult he only read books when stationed in Iraq, but he is a voracious reader of car and airplane magazines. And not the photos, he reads the articles on how to improve this and that. And he reads to his kids, though I'm not sure if he does every night. And the youngest- refused to learn to read. He was in second grade and refusing to learn, so we went on a family trip and told the older kids don't read anything to Anthony. We'd come into a town and he'd ask where we were, I'd say read the sign. We'd go in a restaurant and he'd ask for something and we'd say they don't have it. He'd ask what they have and we'd tell him to read the menu. He threw a few tantrums, but by the end of the trip, he decided he needed to read and by fourth grade he was reading at ninth grade level and was a voracious reader from them on. He's also a very talented writer, but I don't know if he'll ever do anything with it.
I was ten when I got glasses, too, Kendra. I'd been telling my mother I couldn't see things and she'd been thinking I was trying to get attention. When I told her the teacher had humiliated me that day when I asked to sit closer to the backboard in order to read test questions (I raise hand, ask nicely, she says, "Charlie, trade seats with this blind baby so she can see the board." Ack! WHat was wrong with that woman?) my mother finally took me to the doctor. I can remember walking out of his office in my new glasses and being able to see individual leaves on the small trees. I had always thought trees were just a green blur.
Anyway, I read constantly to my kids. Then they read books themselves. But somewhere along the way, my daughter stopped reading fiction all the time. My son, however, is a voracious reader and goes through books with the speed of lightening. Novels, history, etc... Same upbringing, same opportunities, just different people.
I read a lot as a kid but stopped reading so much when I was in high school. When I was twenty and pregnant and living in Hawaii, I rediscovered the library and Agatha Christie, and have not been without a mystery or romantic suspense since then.
Sorry I rambled, fun blog.
Hey! What happened to the list of books you read the last two weeks???? I tuned in all excited to see your list . . . . :):):):)
I read to Tavy every single day (I even read to her when I was pregnant:)). She has books in every room of the house--including the bathroom! She absolutely adores books. Long before she could sit or even roll, she could hold a book, and she loves trying to get my books almost as much as she loves hers. She loves it when I give her a big stack of paperbacks to stack and sort, and she has a new game where I give her a book, and she toddles it over to a bin before bringing me another one. Right now, she loves books with pictures of babies, books with flaps, and books that you can touch & feel.
One of the neatest things has been watching my husband read to her--he's not a fiction reader and 99% of his reading comes via the computer. But, I think watching me with her and watching how much she loves it converted him, and now I often find him reading to her. Ditto my brother.
If she's not a reader when she gets older, it certainly won't be from lack of trying on our part :) :):) However, my mother read to all three of us with similar voracity, and I'm the big reader, my middle brother reads occasionally for pleasure, and my youngest brother is a big nonfiction fan, but gets most of his stuff via the internet. We all appreciate books though--just varying degrees of book reading happening :)
Because I just can't help but brag on my baby-the-future-reader, here's her having story time for her animals (she does this on her own!):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wavybrains/2910882403/
My mother read to my sister and I until we could read for ourselves. I carried on the tradition by reading to Jim and our son each evening. The nightly reading was our only family entertainment as we purposely lived without a TV in the house from the time our son was four until he was 13.
However, when our son wanted me to read the whole series of Star Trek books out loud I decided it was time to let everyone in the family read on their own before bed. He went on to read Star Trek, the Dune books, Edgar Rice Burroghs, James Bond, and many more series of books I've forgotten. I'm glad I stopped at the start of that series obsession.
Later, after our son was out on his own, Jim and I took up reading out loud to each other again. For several years we read biographies, Jim reading biographies about males and I alternating with females. When I ran out of good biographies about women, we switched to mysteries.
Our son continues to read and has a good-sized library of his own. I think it takes a combination of reading aloud to children, setting an example by reading ourselves, and having plenty of books available at home (whether purchased or from the library) to produce a good reader.
As for eye exams, I wish I had done what you are doing, Kendra. My mother took me to an eye doctor to get glasses when I was eight years old after the school did a screening, but the school didn't catch my son's myopia and he didn't get his first glasses until he joined the National Guard at 17. I felt really bad that we hadn't noticed he couldn't see distant objects through all of his childhood. Fortunately, it didn't handicap him a school.
OMG, Wavy, that is an absolutely adorable photograph!!! Wait til' she's a best selling author (no pressure) and trot that out! Cute!
I had to work today and totally forgot that I'd blogged! Ya'll sound like such good parents making those kids read!
Wavy, I had included my reading in the blog then deleted it figuring no one would remember. I read 10 books. That doesn't include two ebooks that I'd bought out of curiosity and now wish I hadn't. I didn't work on my WIP very much. And I wasted way too much time doing this: http://lyonsliterary.blogspot.com/
Four Karen Marie Moning books. Three I'd read several times before and her newest. Suzanne Brockman's Flashpoint. Awesome. Two Robert Crais, CL Wilsons 3rd book in her amazing debut fantasy series and a nonfiction on the witness protection program. Did you know only 6% of the people who enter WITSEC aren't criminals? A lot of scumbags in there.
Cute baby pics!
Hi, Kendra!
I read to my sons when they were younger, but both of them struggled with spelling. As adults, they read some but aren't voracious readers. However, they both are interested in writing.
Sounds like there are many of us who went through the can't-see-the-blackboard situation. I did too and ended up with glasses in the sixth grade. Fortunately, the teacher who talked to my parents was much more helpful than Alice's. Sheesh!
Reading--they didn't want to teach my son (mentally handicapped and autistic) to read while he was in school. No need for that in handicapped kids, they said. So when I saw signs he could, might, be able to--I went at it. Started with letters, went to sounds, some phonics, and then sight words. He can read now at a third grade level of understanding and it's opened up worlds to him that aren't open to his peers. It's helped him get into our world more. I am so PRO reading for everyone, including the mentally handicapped, it isn't funny. Great blog.
Flo
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