Xander is following along in the books while our Smithsonian Oceanic Collection audiobook plays. Nick has a new total obsession with fish and sea creatures, so he is sitting next to Xander reading his library books Where's That Fish? and Ocean Counting: Odd Numbers for the hundred and thirty-first time.
In the last month, when reading to Nick, I have sometimes used my finger to point at each word as I read it. I bet Xander has been doing the same while trying to keep up with the audiobooks. What I noticed today is that Nick is slowly drawing his finger along each line of words on each page of the books he is "reading." I think he really gets the concept that these words make up the story that has been read aloud to him.
He has been sleeping with favorite books for the last week or two. I wasn't sure how that was going to work out - I didn't want him to stay awake in naps and bed times to read the books. I don't think he has been. His sleep has been good, and he protests very little at sleep times when I let him have the books in bed with him. In fact, they go almost everywhere with him.
What has their mom been doing with all this free time while they read books? Aside from writing a blog post...baking whole-wheat chocolate chip peanut butter oatmeal cookies to bring to our friends' house when we go over for dinner this evening!
I am looking forward to the holiday tomorrow. There's not much pressure to be in bed right on time tonight and no pressure to be up in time for school the next morning. I want to do a Memorial Day activity with the boys, but other than that, I think it will be a trial day to see how our summer schedule will work with both at home.
We just got to see Erik on Face Time which was great. He read the Diego book he has there to Nick, on request. Nick always requests that now when he sees Daddy on the "pooter." Justin was there visiting him! They are now going to meet up with my college friend who lives in the area. Justin had met her before, so hopefully it will be a nice day for them.
That scene looks absolutely blissful! How fun to spend so much time reading. Do you have an aquarium nearby for the boys to see the fishes they're reading about so much?
ReplyDeleteAlso, you can feel free to send some cookies to me. Just sayin'.
I'm afraid with both our guys it was just a question of time. We did almost everything anyone recommends to get kids interested in reading, mainly because I am a book lover myself and between the four of us we have so many different types of books and reading materials. Nick has gone through two phases so far of exclusively wanting to read to himself: one phase was a few months ago and one phase is the current one. :) I don't even read to him much right now because he usually rejects that in favor of reading to himself or listening to our audiobooks. A month ago he was listening to at least 15 books in a row when people would read that many! I'm glad that Hula Girl is a book lover, but I'm not surprised!
ReplyDeleteI tried doing SSR with Xander when he was about 4 years old. (Ahhh! Typing that, I can still hardly believe he's older than four years old! Growing up fast!) That worked okay but not the greatest. Same with doing audiobooks during rest time after he got rid of his last nap. He now loves to look at books on his own AND to be read books aloud AND to read picture books or easy readers himself. I plan to do scheduled SSR with him this summer during Nick's naptime. I'm sure it will go over just fine because he will like reading near me (once we get past the complaints that he was right in the middle of playing some elaborate scheme with his Lego mini-figures).
As I type this, Nick is sitting at the dining room table with a stack of books he is earnestly "reading." Titles: Eastern Birds, Trees of the Eastern United States, Les Miserables, Spanish-English Dictionary, Brave New World, The Read-Aloud Handbook, I Am With You Always.