Reading aloud
Many times in my 12 years of motherhood, I have attempted to read books aloud to my children. I’m not talking about picture books. The kids always love picture books and will sit still for those. Or rather they’ll climb all over me and fight about who has the largest portion of my lap while I try to reach around them all to turn pages and speak loud enough to be heard over the din. But I wanted to be able to share more than picture books. I wanted to read novels. Fun stories that they aren’t yet able to read for themselves, but which I hope they will enjoy. Heretofore I have had only limited success.
Such reading is very difficult if there is a toddler or baby around to object to everyone paying attention to anything not the toddler. But now for the first time since I became a parent, I have no baby or toddler. The youngest of my kids is now old enough to pay attention to a story with no pictures. However none of them are old enough to consistently sit still and pay attention if they have nothing to keep their hands busy. I solve that problem by reading during bedtime snack. I throw food in front of them and then hurry to read aloud while their hands and mouths are busy. Sometimes we only get a single page read. Other times we make it through a whole chapter.
The kids accepted this new habit of mom’s without objection. They listened to Peter Pan some interest, but when I began reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, they began to be enthusiastic. Now they come running for snack and Harry Potter. I expect that we’ll make our way through all of the books. At least I intend to try. I’m interested to see if they remain as enthusiastic when we’re reading the books for which they have not already seen movies. We may take some breaks from Harry Potter to read other books. But the key is that we’ve found an enjoyable ritual that my three younger kids all love. Kiki does not sit and listen. She prefers to wait until I am done reading. Then she snatches the book and reads the entire thing all by herself. Then she reads the next Potter book and the next. Since I’ve started reading Sorceror’s Stone, Kiki has gone through the whole series twice.
I’ve been having so much fun reading to the kids, that I decided to read aloud to Howard as well. I’ve been trying to find a way for me to participate in his painting hobby so that the time he spends painting can be together time for us. I don’t really want to paint myself. There isn’t room for two at his table anyway, but there is plenty of room away from the table. This evening I sat in the other chair and read aloud from Alcatraz versus the Evil Librarians.
Reading aloud is fun. I just wish my voice didn’t wear out so quickly.