Reading Time

Last Thursday we made our first trip to the library in a long time. Yay!! The first grader was at dance and so I took the preschooler and the baby boy and we went in for a ‘quick’ trip to the library.

Ha.

Somebody decided it would be a good idea when they built the library to give it high, open, ceilings. Ceilings that create good… echoes. Baby boy discovered the echo when he squealed… and boy did he think that was cool.

He ran here, he ran there, he ran everywhere but to mommy. He went around the aisle this way, I went around the aisle that way, and shhh, don’t tell he outsmarted his mommy and somehow ended up on the other side of next aisle. Giggling. Belly-laughing. Tickled pink.

And they thought it was cute.

Why do they think that is cute?

Because it’s not their kid.

I swooped him up (amongst many echoing and refracting giggles) and fortunately managed to get out of there with a few books for each of the girls. As the lady was checking the books out to me, I asked her, “I have specific books I am looking for,… I know I can call ahead of time and see if you have them… I don’t suppose I can call before the next time, like say,… nap time, when they are all sleeping and ask you if you have these books and have them pulled for me?”

She smiled at me and replied “Yes, you can, that would probably be the easiest thing for you.”

*sigh*

All that to say that I’ve revamped our reading program here. I’ve never assigned reading work or had a scheduled reading time because my daughter loves to read so much. However, I have decided to make a reading list for her to complete for the year and also to record other books that she reads that aren’t on the list – just for the sake of record keeping. My list contains books to be read to her, books for her to read to me, and books for her to read on her own. I scoured the multitude of internet resources for recommended reading lists for her age group and came up with several that I remembered from my childhood and some others that sounded like something she’d be interested in. Now all I have to do is successfully get them home from the library. Ahem.

So this week she has read:

“Pancakes for Supper” by Anne Isaacs – This one was so much fun to read to them. Both girls really liked it.

“Yours Truly, Goldilocks” by Alma Flor Ada – This was fun, too. I got to use lots of voices. 😉 The approach of telling a story through a series of letters written back and forth between the characters was pretty creative, I thought. I discovered there was actually a book written before this one, “Dear Peter Rabbit.” We’ll see if we can get that one next time.

And right now she is reading “Amelia Bedelia Under Construction” by Herman Parish. She likes Amelia Bedelia, though she’s only read a couple. She is supposed to be reading this one to me, though I read a little bit of it as a bed time story for both of them. I’ll have her read the rest of it out loud.

So that’s it for The Library Adventures. Next time I’m taking a stroller and a sucker. 😛