Read to your child...

There is nothing my kids love more than a good snuggle on the couch with a book. Whether it is me or my child doing the reading, they don't seem to care, but reading, together, is the key. I don't do this enough. Such a simple act but the reward is so big. In our home we go through times when we do family reading really well and other times are desperately lacking.

We are slowly (ever so slowly!) working our way through the Little House on the Prairie series. We have been on book 4 for several months. We chipped away at it in the summer but there always seemed to be something more pressing. Maybe as the Fall nights get cooler and darker more quickly we might just have a chance at getting to book 5 before the end of 2014.

A few other books we have read as a family are:
* The One and Only Ivan
* From Anna (careful, this one will make the reader (me) cry often. My kids were always asking me what the matter was. I guess I just felt for the Anna and all her awkward ways)
* Kids' devotionals
* Philippians (I challenge you to camp out here for an entire month... read different versions, all 4 chapters, every night for 30 days. See how your family changes. We did this and to read it out loud it takes 15 minutes in NIV and 18 minutes in the Message, so it is not too big of a job!)
* Charlotte's Web
* Out of Time (a Reading Link book that my son brought home from school... good for about gr. 3/4 and up)
* Eleven

In the next week or so I am going to start my home reading program with my Kindergarten class. Here is a little poem that I love to give to parents as a reminder (and read myself for the same reason!) to remember the importance of reading to, with, beside or in front of your child.... and, sometimes, let your child read to you! (this is sometimes more painful, but the rewards are great).

Twenty Minutes A Day

By Richard Peck

Read to your children

Twenty minutes a day;

You have the time, 

And so do they.

Read while the laundry is in the machine;

Read while the dinner cooks;

Tuck a child in the crook of your arm 

And reach for the library books.

Hide the remote,

Let the computer games cool,

For one day your children will be off to school:

Remedial? Gifted? You have the choice;

Let them hear the first tales

In the sound of your voice.

Read in the morning;

Read over noon;

Read by the light of

Goodnight Moon.

Turn the pages together,

Sitting close as you'll fit,

Till a small voice beside you says,

 Hey, don't quit.