I once read a quote that said “When I get paid I buy books, and if there is money left over I buy food”. At the time, I was in the Navy in Guam. Rather than hang out with the military folk, I would spend hours at the bookstore, spending most of my paycheck on books that interested me. When I finally left the island, I had more boxes of books to ship than clothes!
My husband loves books too. He could spend a whole Saturday at the bookstore, and visits Amazon.com at least once a week. Because of our obsession, our house has more books than anything, more than can even fit on the shelves. I tell my husband we need to buy more bookcases, but when we do, it gives me reason to buy more books.
I think for this reason, my kids have always loved books too. Just like the rest of the house, the majority of their space in their room is filled with books. I stock up at the thrift store, buying books that my kids can grow into, the same way I buy their clothes.
We started reading to the kids when they were just babies, board books and cloth books at first. They would focus on the shiny shapes on the page, or chew on the edges. As they grew, their interest moved to the pictures, and then on to the words.
My daughter, now almost 7, is reading in spanish and english on her own. She still likes me to read her familiar picture books and point out what the characters are doing in the story. I am so proud to hear from her teacher that she is reading above grade level and likes to read to the other kids in class. At some point every day, she pulls a pile of books off the shelf, to browse through and read. Sometimes they make it back on the shelf, most days they don’t. But I don’t mind. I’m just happy she is choosing to read on her own.
My son, about to turn 1o, is a similar story. Like his sister, he can read in Spanish, but prefers to read in English when offered a choice. He can be found, throughout the day, engrossed in a book. He likes to spend his recess time reading in the classroom, or reading at a bench on the playground. He started with Captain Underpants comic style books, and has moved on to the Lightning Thief series, which has inspired his new interest in Greek Mythology.
This weekend, while my husband studied his computer programming textbook, my son came into the room. Checking out the title, he asked his dad if he could read the textbook when my husband was finished. If my son’s brain is anything like my husband’s, he could do amazing things with computers. We are now on a mission to find a text that is simple enough for him to start learning programming!
That’s the power of reading. It can open your world up to an unlimited amount of possibilities. If you can dream it, there is probably a book about it out there somewhere, just waiting for you to explore it.
Celebrate America Reads month with your family! Stop by the thrift store and stock up, or pull that book off the shelf you have been meaning to read. Start reading a classic to your kids at bedtime. We like to read a chapter every night before bed. If you live in Southern California, try Island of the Blue Dolphins. It is based on the lives of the native people of the Channel Islands. After reading that book, we took the kids on a camping trip to Santa Cruz Island, and the kids swore it was the Island of the Blue Dolphins!
