Tag Archives: reading

Reading Concerns

Clara has always struggled with reading.

She dropped behind her classmates early on. It wasn’t surprising given her complete and total lack of interest in the entire “learn to read” plan . Given a list of words to practice such as “the”, “two” and “go” she would respond to flashcards of the same with answers like, “turtle”, “grapes” and “birthday cake”. And with that less than auspicious start, she was off on the road to reading.

Over the years she has, of course, greatly improved but in a house full of readers, she is a listener. Happy to listen to audio books for hours and beg for chapter after chapter of whatever our current nightly read is.

This has been troubling as a mother (not to mention as a reader and an author) but Clara has always been disinclined to acquiesce to anyone’s plan just because someone thinks she should. When I worry, I remember how much she likes books and stories and figure that eventually Clara will decide that reading is important to her but it’s not going to happen until she darn well feels like it.

Two nights ago I gave her yet another pile of books that I thought she might be interested in and now I have a new worry.

Will the girl ever get enough sleep again?

Clara has gone to bed hours past bedtime since she picked up Homer Price by Robert McCloskey. Of course as a life long “just one more chapter before bed, oops it’s 2am” sort of girl I’m not about to throw stones. But as her mother I am a bit concerned. Not only is she not sleeping but what book do I give her next?

Book suggestions welcome!

Harry Potter with Sprinkles on Top

Clara hid under her blanket, then she popped back out, jumped up, walked around and climbed up to lay across back of the couch behind me. We were in the last two chapters of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and she was a nervous wreck. She gasped and she giggled and she stopped me with frantic questions about what was going to happen next that I refused to answer. When we reached the final page she laughed and laughed, then asked if we could start book two tomorrow.

Reading a great book for the first time is magical.

Re-reading a wonderful book is like visiting an old friend.

 

And re-reading a book with a child is like combining the two but with sprinkles and a cherry on top.

When I was about Clara’s age I visited one of my aunts, all by myself, and she read me Danny Champion of the World by Roald Dahl.

It was the best thing ever.

I was old enough to have read it on my own but she read the whole thing out loud, her own love of the book shining through the reading. Of all the things we did together and of all the books I read as a kid that memory and that book have always remained a favorite.

If you don’t have a kid of the proper age borrow one. Read them one of your favorite books. Take a decadent amount of time to do so and give yourselves an experience with sprinkles and a cherry on top.