I’ve been reading to my kids for over five years now and have found some great books and some clunkers. I’ve learned that while Child Harbat, previously Baby Harbat, would happily sit still for a prolonged book reading session, The Boy (Number Two) will eagerly climb into your lap with a book, flip through the pages like he’s trying to crush an ant between the sheets, then climb down to get the next book before you’ve finished the first sentence.
However I’ve noticed the more you read to your kids the more they want to be read to.
CH and I are just about finished reading The Hobbit and she sees reading time as the necessary capstone on every day. When I dropped Number Two off at preschool this morning he played with a toy car for a minute then found a book, plopped himself down on his padded diaper butt, and started thumbing through a book on his own. Often I’ll be somewhere in the house, hear a worrying absence of noise, and rush around expecting Number Two is reaching for a carving knife or sticking his fingers in an outlet, only to find him sitting by his book basket reading on his own. At one and a half I think this is a good sign! Because of his advanced squirminess my wife was only able to get the below picture from a collection of twenty blurred images but trust me, he will sit and read!
Writer, architect, father, husband.
Never too young for books and reading to kids! Love it!
I’d say that half of reading time is just being close and sharing time with a parent. It’s one of my favorite things to do.