Love of Reading...

I have always loved to read.  When I was a kid the highlight of the weeks during summer break was when we got to go to the little library in my hometown.  It wasn't big but I loved it.  I read almost every book in the middle school library and read a lot in the high school library.  I didn't leisure read much in college....too busy.  But once I graduated, I make a twice monthly trip to the library and checked out as many books as I could read.

When my kids were born, I began to read to them almost from birth.  It was a way to get my son to sit still for a little bit during the day. As long as my husband or I read to him, he'd sit still.  It became a tradition for my husband to read every night to my son, Goodnight Moon and many others when he was little and chapter books like The Hobbit and The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe when he got older.  As soon as he was able, he began to read and hasn't stopped since.

My daughter, was a different story.  She liked me to read to her but would tire after only a few books.  I did read to her at night but she didn't seem to have a love of reading like my son did and I worried endlessly that she would miss out on the wonderful world of reading. She had a reading program in elementary school and many nights leading up to the end, when she needed a certain amount of points, I would read to her in bed so she could test on the book to get her points.  It was stressful for both her and I.  I bought all sorts of books trying to 'turn her on' to reading....nothing seemed to work. 

It wasn't that she couldn't read, she read well.  She just didn't enjoy it.  She would rather play dolls or look at the pictures in a magazine.  Then, my son and I began to read the Twilight series.  She wanted to read it so badly because all the 'cool' older kids were reading it.  I wouldn't let her read it because it had vampires in it and she'd always had this 'thing' about vampires.  She watched a 'Doug' cartoon on Halloween where he turned into a vampire or something like that and suddenly everyone, including me, were vampires!  She'd wake up in the night from a vampire dream....the whole little girl nine yards!  There was no way I was going to let her read a book about vampires! 

About a year ago, I finally gave in and let her read the first book in the series.  Well, she read it in two weeks! Then, in about a month, she finished the rest of the series!  Twilight had turned her on to reading!  Yes, I said the Twilight series....hey, whatever works!

Now, there is no stopping her, she reads constantly.  I had to go to the library today to pick up another group of books for her today while she was in school.  She started the series over spring break and needs to finish it quickly!

The love of reading has been passed on.....I'm so happy!