Books, Books, and more Books!

Ginger is our only child that we ever taught to read before she started to Kindergarten.  With the boys there wasn't so much pressure to have kids reading by kindergarten.  Kindergarten for the girls has been more like Darin and Nathan's first grade experiences.  Honestly, I'm not a fan of teaching kids to read before kinder.  I feel like there is so much to teach them in the 5 years before they go to school that are so much more important than reading.  Things like being respectful, listening to adults, learning boundaries, how to safely explore and encouraging their natural curiosity.  And just plain having fun with them. 

 

Anyway, Ginger was the exception in our family and pretty much demanded that I teach her how to read, she hounded me day after day for months. Plus she picked up almost all of it entirely on her own playing with toys on the floor while I worked with Rose.  I am grateful that it came easy for her (I mean me!) because Rose took quite a bit of effort.  I'm not going to lie it was nice to have a break!

 

We did the same book I used with Rose, Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, the later part of last school year a couple of times a week.  She also did some lessons during the summer but we stopped about halfway through the book and never worried about it once school started.  So imagine my surprise when 5 months after school started Ginger insisted that we absolutely must finish her Learn to Read Book.  I kept telling her that she didn't need to do it anymore and she was reading really well.  But she didn't believe me until I sat down with her and flipped to the last few lessons and had her read me the story at the end. 

 

Seriously, she was so cute!  And nervous!  "Are you sure I can skip to the end?"

Maybe I can do this...

Oh, yeah!  I'm a pro!

Such a cute (and smart) girl!

I just love her little hands.  Ginger proved that she didn't need to finish the book.  It took her 20 seconds to realize that meant she wouldn't be getting rewards like before.  Ken would take her and Rose to McDonald's or to do something fun after they did 10 lessons.  Ginger was trying to insist on finishing it lesson by lesson anyways so that she got all of her just rewards.  I bought her off with the promise of a bigger then normal reward:)

Ken was out of town for the second Monday evening in a row.  Let's just say Mondays, are pretty much my least favorite day for him to be gone on a business trip.  Often when he is gone we end up going to the library for FHE.  It's a win-win all around.  Especially now since the boys can rarely ever come when I take the girls to the library.  I went to the adult section for a few minutes and found my children had already picked out a massive pile of books and were already enthralled in their choices.

It's nice having the boys around to haul the 20+ lbs. of books.

Why stop reading just because it is time to leave.  Can't everyone read and walk at the same time?

Seriously, they wouldn't stop reading!

Quietest car ride ever!  You would think this was the first time they ever checked out books.

I am happy that our children love to read.  Ken and I both remember how important it was to our parents that we learn how to be a strong readers (we both struggled with reading) and it's a legacy that we are passing onto them!