Ever since Sam was a baby I have read with him. Chris and Joe both thought I was insane, but I literally read books with him before he probably knew that I was his mother. We still read to him every night at bedtime and he genuinely loves books. It's a punishment to him if we take his stories away at night.
I have not been as good as reading with Vivian. She was always exposed to Sam's stories, but I never made the same commitment to sitting down and reading to her on a daily basis. Every few months we make a concerted effort to designate a story time with her. We do try to read to her every night before bed, but because she doesn't love it, it doesn't always happen. I'm feeling exceedingly neglectful and guilty because she is a late talker and I'm sure that reading to her more would have had a positive impact on her language development.
I had a extra twenty minutes or so the other day when everything felt quasi-orderly and Sam was occupied with something. I came into the living room with Vivian and got out a book.
"Let's read a book Vivian!" I said. She obediently took the book and sat on the ground looking excited. I felt even guiltier. We looked at a couple of pages. She took the book and lay on her belly to look at it. I could no longer see it. It was super cute though watching her lie on her stomach imitating Sam. Then she put her head on the book and pretended to rest. Then she got up and got a different book. I tried to read it with her. She closed it and got another book. We looked at a page. She skipped five or six pages. I quickly tried to read the words on that page. She flipped back to the beginning. Then she got up to get the entire basket of board books, which was too heavy and she dropped it. Then she took a book and went in the kitchen. She ran back with the book and gave it to me. I opened it and started reading it. She ran back to the kitchen. I kept reading trying to entice her to come back and so she was still hearing it the language. (I will improve her vocabulary). She came back in and righted the basket the books had been in and stood in it. I ignored her and continued to read. Vivian then took the basket and turned in upside down and stood on top of it. Then she started to jump off it. I finished the book and closed it.
"All done reading," I told her. "Time to clean up!" I stacked the books and she got off the basket and put them away. Reading attempt fail.
Not to be deterred, I got out a flap book that night at bedtime. She likes interactive books (only) and particularly ones where you can lift the flap. This one was a Karen Katz hand-me-down, something where you lift baby's winter clothing to reveal a body part- (under baby's hat is his head! Under baby's coat is her belly button!) Some of the flaps had been taped back on. We got a couple of pages in and the ear muffs on the baby had been taped back onto the baby's head. Vivian peeled the tape off and stuck the earmuff on her belly. She patted it and smiled proudly. She thought it was a sticker. I took it and stuck it back over the baby's ear.
"No!" she said. (She learned how to say no while she was sick and says it in a whiny kind of teenager attitude voice). She took the ear muff flap back and slid off the couch and ran into the kitchen to show Chris.
"Oh a sticker! Nice Vivian," I heard him say.
"No, it's not a sticker! A part of a book." I showed him the baby, minus one ear muff piece, as I retrieved Vivian and sat her back down. She tried to remove the flaps from the next few pages. I closed the book and put her to bed, ear muff flap and all.
I'll be sad if she doesn't learn to love reading. It's always been such a big part of my life and I try to instill it my students at school. The irony is how often I tell parents to read to their children and I feel like I am not following my own advice. There's so much research to support reading to kids at a young age, for language development, vocabulary, school readiness, love of literacy- the list goes on. Hopefully at some point she'll decide she likes books. Hopefully at some point she'll decide to try to talk…
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