Raising Readers

Can I just say that I am absolutely amazed at the experience of watching my kids learn to read. It is an incredible and nearly magical process. I am fascinated with how it seems to unfold before your very eyes.

From pregnancy on we read to our boys. Reece was only months old when we began the routine of reading the same few books to him daily. We have always made it a point to have many books available in our home. And then the older brothers participated in "reading" to the younger ones and so on and so on. We have done what we could to prioritize reading.

So why does it come as such a surprise when you see your little ones figure out how to sound out a word, and read a sentence and before you know it, take off reading chapter books? Pretty fun.

Reece has been reading confidently and enjoying it for quite some time now. Chase was in the beginning stages last year but is really putting it together quickly right now. It is so fun! I love the little giggle of accomplishment as his confidence grows. I love seeing it come together for him and feel like he is stepping up a level in his growing up. And Pierce is a shadow of his big brothers - he is far from true reading but in his mind he has arrived! He will patiently page through the pages of novels or chapter books without pictures and claim he is reading them.

For all three this new experience of the public library is a huge hit. We sign out a lot of books every visit. And the school boys bring library books home from school all of the time. There are a lot of books to keep track of!

When we moved into this house we wanted to get them something special to establish some routine. We opted for this simple idea of a reading lamp/clip lamp for each of them. They each picked out their own and were chanting in the shopping cart "clip lamps, clip lamps" - it was a funny sight). They were more than excited - (I love it when kids get amazed at simplicity!!!) They LOVE them and they USE them! In fact, they consider it an offense if the night has grown too late and they are denied the use of the clip lamp on any given school night.

Here are a few cute boys making their brains a little smarter :)