catch the reading bug

Jun 10

Posted by: Rachel in: blog, caleb isaiah, family, just another day in paradise, me myself and i, memories, parenting, ramblings, rants

Catch the Reading Bug is the national summer reading program for 2008. You can check with your local library to see if they are participating. Basically, the idea is to set a number of books to read over the summer, then write down the titles on a paper they give you as you complete your books. You bring your paper in when you’ve met your goal and get a few little fun things in return (probably depending on the library). At our story time today, the librarian let us get a jump start (the official kick off is next week). When we went to sign up, I asked how many, ballpark speaking, were parents signing up to read. She said 25-30. That’s it? Now if that is reading age kids, reading on their own, I say great, but my understanding is that this program is directed more at parents reading to their preschool aged children. Does that number seem a little low to you?

I often feel like I don’t read enough. If I had to choose one thing that I felt the most guilty about during his first year of life, it would be that I didn’t read to him. I found it very hard to read to a baby. I know they are getting something out of it, but come on, they hit the books, drool on them and call it a day. It is hard to read when you’re not getting a lot of feedback. At least for me. Now I love reading to him. He is still talking about the On Top of Spaghetti book that we checked out a couple weeks ago. He loves listening to the story, talking about the pictures, and even memorizes his favorite books so that he can “read” them back to me.

We do read a short book every day at naptime, but we go in and out of phases where we only read at naptime, to where we read several times a day. Right now we’re reading several times a day. We have 11 books checked out this week! We checked out 8 the first week, returned them all, got 8 more, and kept 2, and borrowed 9 more today! I just couldn’t imagine only reading 25 books to him over the course of the whole summer. That just seems…weird. I had just said to Scott a few nights ago, I wish someone would give me about $1000 to go in Barnes and Noble with! I love, love, love the beautiful hard cover picture books (like the Bear books by Karma Wilson), but they are expensive! $15-18 a piece adds up QUICK. I’ve even been looking for a website where you can search for children’s books by subject and/or the message you would like the book to have. For example, we are currently trying to encourage a little more independence in Caleb. He is walking a line right now between “do it myself” and “do it for me.” So if anyone knows of such a website where you can search by the “lesson” of the book, let me know!

Speaking of lessons, there were a few kids at the library that could have used a lesson! During the story time, one lady came in a few minutes late with her daughter. Two other little girls were sitting near the front. The third little girl plopped down beside them and wrapped her arms around one of the girls. The librarian knew all three of them by name, so I take it they are regulars that make things difficult. She told each one individually to keep their hands in their own laps and then made light of the situation to the rest of the group, chuckling somewhat sarcastically and saying that they were a little threesome. You could hear her searching for the right word between little and threesome so as not to offend the parents/grandparents, yet convey to the rest of the room that they were irritating and disruptive.

Another little boy came in late also, and he brought a few Hot Wheels type cars with him, so Caleb spent the entire story time focused on those cars rather than the story. He would inch a bit closer, then look at me, inch and look, inch and look. I kept shaking my head, and then he would scoot back to my feet and start over again.

The children’s section at our library is located downstairs. They have a movie type room with chairs in a semicircle and the middle of the floor open for kids to sit for story time, and a separate room where all of the children’s books are located. I always remind Caleb as we are walking into the library that we use a whisper voice inside. I do let him talk quietly once we get into the children’s section since it is downstairs away from the adult section. I always remind him on the way up the stairs again to use his whisper voice. On one hand, I think it is a great idea to have the kid’s area downstairs, so as not to disturb others. But on the other hand, some parents see it as an open invitation to allow their children to be rowdy and loud.

We picked up a few books before story time this morning, then we all headed down the hall. When we returned, Caleb and I were the first few people in the room. He went over to the puzzle table and started putting some pieces on a puzzle that had been left out. One of these little girls came back in the room and immediately said “Hey that’s MINE!” Caleb just kind of looked at her funny and moved on to a different puzzle. Then all three of the girls crawled around on their hands and knees all over the room screeching. I watched the librarian following them around to ensure that they didn’t cause any damage or get hurt. Their mothers were, of course, looking for books and completely oblivious for the most part. None of them had other children to tend to either. Caleb watched them for a few minutes then came running up and asked me to hold Charley. He dropped to his hands and knees and I caught his arm. “No, I don’t think so,” I said, “we’re about ready to go check out our books, do you want to carry your book and DVD?” One of the mothers ended up in front of us somehow. The entire time she was going up the stairs, standing in line, and checking out their books, she was trying to corral her daughter. She kept saying “Stormy, get over here NOW,” through clenched teeth. Yes, Stormy. Hopefully next week will a little less stormy!


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Comments

2 Responses to “catch the reading bug”

    Marci
    June 11th, 2008 10:56 am

    Another great way to get kids reading and writing is to allow them to penpal their classmates over the summer. They absolutely love to receive mail just for them, so signing them up with a mail service is not a bad idea either. Take a look at this website for girls that encourages reading and self esteem – http://www.highprincess.com

    Julie
    June 12th, 2008 8:26 am

    Great post! :) We’re going to getting to the library much more often since school is almost over! I love the Bear books too! Soooo cute! If you ever have book ideas and that sort of thing, I’m interested!

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