WORDS WE READ
“Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his deep and continuing needs, is good for him.
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Instilling a love of reading is something I focus on when the children are with me. Most of the time, I let them choose the books they want and order them before they arrive at my place. On other occasions, I have brought them books from my travels to Ireland which they seem to enjoy.
During the long holiday weekend, I awoke early one day and heard Sage's voice behind the closed door of his bedroom. Since he always insists the door to be left open every night, I found this a bit odd. As I listened, I heard him re-reading the book we read together the night before. I smiled as I descended the stairs, deciding not to disrupt his focus.
Yesterday afternoon as I checked in on the girls, I noticed Cinnamon asleep with a book on her pillow. She was on her fourth book this week, the last in the first boxed set of Junie B. Jones. Her goal for the week was to finish this set of four books so that I could have the next set waiting for her when she arrived in a week.
Part of Saffron's homework last night was timed reading. As I was getting ready to talk to my boyfriend on Skype, Saffron asked that I start the timer. I had expected her to read ten or fifteen minutes at most but was rather surprised when she arrived an hour later to announce she had finished her book. She read close to 100 pages in one hour.
The words we read transport us to another world and expand our minds. Those words take us to a world of knowledge and growth with the ability to change our lives more than any other form of passive entertainment as we set scenes in our minds and visualise the characters. A love of reading takes time to form as does any love but in the end the effort is well worth the time we expend.
