Saturday, December 18, 2010

The Reading Room

As any parent knows, once a first grader can string letters together to recognize a word, they become well acquainted with the Reading Log.

The powerful Reading Log holds control over life and death. Okay, that's a slight exaggeration, but close. Failure to maintain the required number of pages or minutes results in loss of attendance to the Ice Cream Party.

If you're in second grade, death is the preferred alternative to not attending the Ice Cream Party.

But when you're in November the oh-so-distant ice cream party holds little allure in the harsh reality of twenty minutes of lost playing/TV time. Jenna, my second grader, goes through spurts of loving to read and hating it. Perhaps it's the reading material, more likely the call of her friends outside, but whatever the reason, Jenna and her Reading Log have become reluctant acquaintances.

Ryan and Emma see me nagging coaxing Jenna to read, see me set the twenty minute timer on my phone, see her camp out in a comfy chair to dive into another world. Apparently (and thankfully,) they have missed the reluctance. Imagine my surprise when the preschoolers approached me with thick paperback books this afternoon and asked me to set the timer.

They were doing their reading minutes.

Aww, isn't that sweet? Ryan's reading.

Umm, are you sure that's appropriate?

Emma's snuggled in with her book.

What? Did they start a Shannon K. Butcher book club and not tell me?

BTW, I'm friends with Shannon and this series is awesome so at least they have good reading taste.