Well we have had to find a new scheduled time for reading to our daughter. We have had a bedtime routine with Jea for a long time and part of that routine includes (most nights anyway) a book or two or three. That is until about 2 weeks ago when she started to balk at getting a book from her shelf for story time. Guess that is what we get for having a routine at bedtime, Jea has now figured out that getting a book off the shelf equals bedtime shortly. And what 3 year old wants to go to bed? hmmmmm not mine no matter how tired she really is! Story time should not be a power struggle and one that has us, the parents, frustrated beyond belief and her, the child, in tears or throwing a tantrum!
So I have decided to move story time to earlier in the evening, ie at least 2 hours away from bedtime. Both Bill and I love to read and want Jea to have that same passion for books and the ability to imagine from words on a page, travel to far off places or "be" a superhero or whatever. We are starting that new routine this week and will see how it goes. Jea loves her books and is at the stage of memorizing favorites. If she knows the book, heaven forbid you miss a word or line or a page! I want that to continue and her interest in reading to grow.
Some of the ideas we are trying to put in place come from a resource book by Jim Trelease called The Read-Aloud Handbook. If you want to know more about it check it out at http://bilisent.com/index.php?p=1_6_Education. One of the things that we have attempted to do but hasn't always gone well is to have family reading time even when I am on the road. Fortunately, I am home for a bit and so hopefully we can get all the modifacations to storytime set in stone!
The other part of story time that is changing is the start of us reading to her more short chapter books rather than baby/toddler word and board books. In light of this, I am perusing our Usborne Books website for longer books which are still easily read and understood. Some of the ones I am most interested in and hope Jea is too are those in the series called Jack Russell: Dog Detective and Ballarina Dreams (since Jea is in a Creative Moment dance class this year). I am looking forward to making our purchase with our preferred customer link where we have accumulated $$ to buy books and other merchandise. YEAH US! I am thinking Christmas gifts this year are going to be books, puzzles, activities and more with very little actual $$ spent!
Lise, we have always each read one book to Sam before bed, but when she got older we'd leave her w/ a pile of maybe 10 books. She then reads to herself until she falls asleep. And I started doing this before she could actually read. She still enjoys reading on her own.
ReplyDeleteLaurie
Laurie,
ReplyDeleteWe do that with Quiet Time in the afternoon. She gets 5 books and a puzzle. Jea is a puzzle fanatic, she is doing 24 piece jigsaw puzzles. Bill read the Read-Aloud Handbook which I am now reading and it advocates reading aloud and/or having them read to every day into their teens.
I love that time with her!