Inside Motherhood

Reading and relaxing

by Sherry on September 5th, 2007

When my first daughter was born, I amassed a collection of children’s books and started reading to her at a young age. To this day, at almost five years old, she still loves to have stories read to her. We try hard to squeeze in at least one before bed, though it’s been a challenge lately with the new get-ready-for-school schedule, but we also read stories at other times too. It’s a nice way to sit quietly on the couch together. She’s so busy all the time, never wanting to sit still any other time, and so reading a book or three together is a great excuse for me to snuggle with her for a bit.

When my second daughter was born, I received a bit of a shock - she wasn’t particularly interested in books. Obviously she couldn’t do much of anything to express her lack of interest as a tiny baby, but once she became mobile (she started walking at 9 months), she would literally walk away from me while I tried to read to her. It made reading more complicated in general, until eventually I set out toys for her to play with when I wanted to read to her big sister.

These days, at almost two, she’s not much more keen than she was, at least when it comes to sitting with me to be read to. Still, she’s gotten better about it and I’ve relaxed about it. Although she doesn’t want to sit on my lap for story time (I tried as recently as tonight), she will happily look at books herself while I read to my oldest. She stands beside the bed, flipping pages, then she goes back to the shelf and says “book” and chooses a new one.

I’ve come to realize that although I’m not reading to her, at least not more than a page or so, she is hearing me reading and she’s enjoying books her own way. I guess at her young age, I don’t need to despair yet that she’ll hate reading.

Either way, it’s definitely better than trying to force it on her.

Do your kids love books? How often do you read to them?

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