Reading

If you've followed James' caringbridge site you'll know that he loves to read books. When we read to James we can't just read one book, we usually have to read about 10 books-no exaggeration! We were recently told about a program that is supported by Cass and Clay Counties United Way called Imagination Library. It was started by Dolly Parton and what they do is send your child an age appropriate book to your child for free every month until they turn 5! How amazing is that! All you have to do is google Dolly Parton's Imagination Library and sign up! If you're not sure your county supports this program-no problem. Simply go to the website and and choose your zip code and they'll tell you if your county participates!

Another recent development that is great for James and his reading is that he now has library class every week at school! He will bring home one book each week! They help him to pick an appropriate book that he can learn from and enjoy!

Reading is one the best things we can do for our children. We've never had a problem with reading to James but we've found with Elliot (our almost 2 year old) is that he just doesn't sit still long enough to read him a book! However as he's gotten older we've noticed that he'll just take some time himself to sit down and at least look at books. Some days it's for 5 seconds and some days he'll sit and look at every book we own! One thing I've tried to do for our boys is to set aside a specific time (right before naptime for us) and we read for 20 minutes. I sit with James in the rocking chair and read to him (about 4-5 books) and turn off the tv and any other distractions. Usually Elliot will follow suit and pull out several books and look at them and every once in a while venture over to James and I to check out the book we're reading. If you have any other ideas for getting more reading time in with your kids, please share!

Happy Reading!