If Only I Had Known Then What I Know Now...About Reading

How many of you readers out there in cyber land had fights with your siblings every morning over who got to read the back of the cereal box and who was stuck with the front? My mornings growing up usually consisted of my sisters and I giving Mom a hard time. "MOM! She's LOOKING at ME!!" To which mom would just say, "Stop looking at your sister." End of story, until it happened again a few moments later.

Ah what I would give to go back and whisper in my Mom's ear, "Give us a book to read!" Not that we did not have plenty of books to read. We did! But it would not have occured to me  to read one at the breakfast table, instead of the box, unless one was right there and handy.

So now, as an adult with two kids of my own, I already have a book basket on my kitchen table. Not that my 4-month-old will be doing heavy reading any time soon, but it is there and ready! My son grabs a book while he munches on his cheerios. For his age (almost 3) I keep them short little picture books. Things he will be content with to just look at the pictures, or that I can read fairly quickly to him. Books like Pelly and Mr. Harrison Visit the Moon, by Lindsay Ward, and 1001 Pirate Things to Spot always keeps him busy while he is waiting for his waffles to pop up.

Another place for a book basket is the bathroom, for obvious reasons. (Baskets are better than bookshelves so you can see the covers. Let's face it. Who does not judge a book by its cover first?)

And last but not least, put a book basket in their bedroom. When a child is capable of independent silent reading, and given a choice to read for 15 more minutes or go straight to sleep, what child would pick to go to sleep?

If only I had known then what I know now! I would have gone to school in a much better mood having read a book instead of having fought with my sisters.