A Family of Readers

I've been writing this post in my mind for several days now. As I finally sit down tonight to actually write it, my 9 year-old son is laying in his bed reading a book. It's after his bed time and he's supposed to have the light off and be falling asleep. But it's a specific book that he asked me to check out from the library because he likes the author, and he can't put it down. A book that he has been picking up to read during every spare moment of the day. A book that I haven't had to nag him about reading.

Earlier tonight my 13 year-old daughter started reading Twilight. On her own. Without me forcing her to. She complained to me that the house was too noisy and she couldn't concentrate on her book. This is the same daughter that got me interested in at least 3 different series of books last school year. She read them for school and loved them so much I had to read them for myself.

My 6 year-old has to memorize a small part for a church program. Her part is typed out on a piece of paper. Tonight I was going to help her memorize it, but she insisted on reading all of the words by herself. There's a few unfamiliar words there, but she asked me what they were and is reading the part over and over to practice. I don't know how she does it, but she always picks the most fun books from the school library. She introduced me to Pinkalicious and Fancy Nancy-two of the best book characters for a first grade girl!

My oldest daughter (now 21) was and is a voracious reader. She would stay up almost to midnight most nights reading books. Quite often I would have to take her books away and make her turn off her light and go to sleep. This during her high school years. I'll never forget her reading Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. She was at the dramatic ending and it was dinner time. She was in the living room trying to finish the last few chapters. I forced her to stop reading and come to the table. After reading the book myself several days later I realized what a mistake that was!

My now 19 year old son wasn't as earnest about reading growing up. Recently he went on a trip with some friends and during their conversations they talked about several favorite books. As soon as he came home he got copies of all those books and that was all he did for the next several days.

When my two oldest children were young I wanted them to experience Caldecott books. So I checked them out from the library two or three at a time. We read them at bed time and talked about the pictures and why they are so awesome. It was such a wonderful tradition that she insisted I read them with my younger children as well. I started doing that, but because I'd already read them I was kind of bored.

I decided I would read chapter books instead. I picked The BFG because I had never read it before. I am currently reading it with my 4, 6, and 9 year old children. As I read it I will occasionally stop and ask questions or get predictions. And guess who can always tell me what's going on? My four year old! She's becoming a reader too!

I'm so proud of my family of readers! I love it when they ask me to sit down with them and read. Not me read to them, but with them. We all sit on the couch and they read their chosen book and I read my chosen book, and we just enjoy the peace and quiet and the thrill of a good book!