Summer Reading Program

So, in my ongoing quest to impose reading on my stepkids, he he, I made reading for 20 minutes part of the younger kids daily chores. It's going greaaaat (yes, that was sarcasm). Caleb has been rereading a Little Critters book over and over again, asking what time it is every few minutes. Today, when he was done, I told him he had used up all of his screen time for the day and needed to do something else. I later found him tying up an Elmo doll and forcing him to read---I am choosing to overlook the psychological implications here. He was laughing and showing Chloe and saying, " And he doesn't even know how to read chapter books."

Then Chloe, who LOVES to read (that was not sarcasm) complained that she doesn't. Like. To read. During. Summer vacation. But today we spent ten minutes on Google trying to figure out the answers to all of her questions. For example, how tall is the Eiffel Tower in miles? Is the Eiffel Tower taller than the London Eye (yes)? What is the biggest city in the world? Biggest in population or biggest in size? And how do you define city versus metropolitan area. When I told her that if she wants to count learning stuff online for her reading that is just fine, she was pretty tickled. Last night I was reading her This is London, because she's always asking me questions about places I've visited....I think it's because she reads Magic Treehouse books. Then I showed her this set of cards I have called 50 Places to Visit in London. So last night, when Kory went to check on her after we'd put her to bed, he found her reading the book and cross-referencing the book with places mentioned on the 50 cards. At night, when I read her the Illustrated Book of Mormon stories, she stops me with questions almost every sentence. So, we had a very interesting discussion last night about the origin of the universe and the concept of infinity.

Phoebe thinks reading is nerdy, but when I asked her if she wanted to come to the library with us this morning, she said yes. In the car, I said, trying to de-emphasize the reading thing, that she could find a movie if she wants. She said in a kind of quiet voice, "Can I get a book?" So of course, I said, no problemo. So, she found some paranormal romance (not Twilight) in the teen section and when I left this afternoon, she was sitting on the front steps reading it out loud to her best friend. Ha.

Isaac came on another library visit and checked out two nonfiction books about World War II. He may not have read much of them, but hey, I'm not complaining.

And even Caleb walked out of the library with five comic books/graphic novels.

So, there is hope. Baby steps, people, baby steps.