Instilling a love of reading is something we all need to set as our mission with our children. Reading is a very important skill to learn in itself. When you can read you can learn and there will be no limit to what you can achieve. Learning to read is a very proud moment for any person. Being read to can help you bond with your child. When your child sees you read on your own he or she will also be encouraged to read themselves to be just like you. Reading is an amazing gift we have been given, the written word. Now how do we get our children to love reading?
So far we haven't had to struggle when it comes to reading and our son. Both his father and I absolutely love reading and do it quite often. OK, so I do it a lot more than he does, but I am so very addicted to learning. I also enjoy reading some great stories. Since the day our son was born I have been reading to him. Even though he was just a baby and many would say he doesn't know what was going on anyway, I kept doing it. When my son was very young I would read any story or book I wanted to read. I knew he didn't understand our language yet and it gave me the opportunity to get in some reading during my busy new mom schedule. What my son did understand was that Mommy was making sounds and holding an object.
As my son grew he got very comfortable with the fact that before nap time and bedtime I would pick up this object and make sounds. Hearing the sound of my voice for a long time would eventually lead him to dreamland. This was working wonderfully for me because I was reading my books, he was getting used to reading, and I was improving my read aloud ability. This was definitely a win win scenario.
Once he turn one and became a toddler he was walking around and moving toys around, being a lot more active. I have continued to keep up the reading, although now I read mostly his books. He can see and understand his books now. I still get to practice my read aloud skills and he get so excited when I or anyone else reads him books. For the last 6 or 7 months his grandparents and his father have joined in the reading train and they love spending time reading him a book and watching him laugh. I think they just waited until he was more active in the actually reading process. Perhaps they felt he didn't get it anyway before a certain age. Still that won't stop me from reading to all my newborns and up. Now he comes up to people with a book and tries to climb on your lap anxiously awaiting the story inside the pages. It's so adorable.
When we go to thrift stores, book stores or any other place with great books, well I usually pick at least one up for him. I let him pick books as well. He got quite a few as gifts this last holiday season which was wonderful. His doctor gives him a new book each time we go see them. A great way to soothe the pain of a shot, maybe.
His collection is far too large, and yet we have read them all. The ages range from boards books to novels and he loves each one in it's own way.
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