Wordful Wednesday...Learning to read...

This week's topic is on Memories of reading....when did we learn to read, teaching our children to read, favorite books as children...I am loving this topic. I love to read! I will pretty much read anything once...most of my books have been read 2 or more times through and will probably be read many more times over. 

I mostly learned to read at school, but the love of reading was instilled in me by my mother. Every night before we went to bed, we got a bedtime story. Even when we were babies. We always had lots of books in the house, and I think every birthday and Christmas we always received a book as a gift. My mom actually made us tapes of some of our books. She would read them into the tape recorder and have a chime when we needed to turn the page. We would lay on the floor listening to her"read" to us when she couldn't. We loved it! 

I have also tried to teach my children to love books, and I think I've done a fairly good job. I was not great at teaching them to read per-say, but they love to sit and have someone read to them. I, too, get them books regularly for gifts, and our little library grows. Now with Gracie in Kindergarten, they get to go to the library and choose a book to take home. When she does, she is so excited and its a great read for the week. And she is learning so much in school that now when I read the book, she can read whole pages with a little help and encouragement from myself. Just like my mother, we try and read to the kids every night before bed. Right now we are reading these little Fairy books that my sister gave Gracie for Christmas. They are actually mini chapter books, but they have small pictures throughout and the chapters are short enough to keep the kids attention. Gracie is REALLY enjoying them. I am so glad they enjoy reading. It is such a nice quiet activity to calm them at the end of the day. Some times if Cooper is really being fussy, I send them to their rooms to "read" and they will sit on the floor and go through the books, sometimes reading to each other. What a wonderful sight to walk in on!

I love all books, and have not started something I haven't finished. I love getting new books, especially books in a series. As a kid we were always allowed to get books from the book fairs and book orders. My mom and dad still have all the books, crowding up space in the basement. When I go to visit, I love to go down there with the kids and we pick a few children's books to have for the week. Then we change it up the next. And I still love going down and getting the young teen novels and re-reading them again. My list of favorites as a child and now would go on forever...but here's some of the top.

• Dr. Suess. Love all the books, especially the 'Foot Book'. I can still remember my parents reading it to me.
• I loved EB White: Charlotte's Web, Trumpet of the Swan, Stuart Little
• The Harry Potter series. I have read through the series four times. I always started again before each book came out.
• Chris Heimerdinger's Tennis Shoes series. Again, read it multiple times, always starting over when the next one came out. Still waiting anxiously for the last one!
• Just finished the Twilight series, twice. Thought they were awesome.
• I love Jack Weyland books. My mom has alot. I like to borrow them from her library when I go home.
• And I can't forget Roald Dahl. Love ALL of his books. I have even read some to my kids and they really enjoy the stories too. James and the Giant Peach is my favorite.

I love to read because it is such an escape. Sometimes too much of one! My husband knows when I've started a new book, the house usually looks like a bomb has gone off, and I am curled up on the chair, totally absorbed. He jokes and calls it my "Bad Mommy" time! But I like where the books take me. I especially like the books that are WAY out there, hence my love for fantasy books like Harry Potter, because they just can't happen, but we all need a little magic to get through the day.