Bedtime Stories

Ever since Kevin was born, Grig has been trying to read him bedtime stories every night.  Some nights we're better at it than others, but we've tried to be consistent.  At first, it was easy because Kevin couldn't move so he had to sit still to listen to the stories.  Grig is a very expressive reader and I rarely hear the same story twice, even when he's reading the same book!  Grig often changes the story to make it more entertaining.  Even though Kevin probably really didn't care at that age, we all still enjoyed the time together. 

Then came the time when Kevin would no longer sit still and really wasn't interested in the cardboard things that didn't move.  He wanted to be active, and it became harder to read to him.  Short stories were key during this stage.  The faster the pages turned, the more Kevin cared.

Finally, we reached a new level.  Kevin loves books now!  His current favorite is one that my parents gave us when he was born.  It's called Eight Silly Monkeys.  It's basically Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed but with a clever twist.  The monkeys' heads are also sticking out of the book so Kevin can touch them.  He loves the rhyme.  Every time we start, he sits down and begins to bob his head up and down, which is his version of dancing.  Then he slaps the book in time to the rhythm and likes to help turn the pages.  He also loves a Mother Goose Rhyme book that we have.  Rhymes and rhythms seem to be the current trend, but he also likes books about him.

We've made an effort to help our son enjoy reading because it is something that Grig and I enjoy very much.  Grig is a freelance Editor for beginning authors and he majored in Creative Writing.  I write books in my spare time as well.  We want our children to love to read, because it is something we love so much.

We also have a lot of books for them to read.  We wouldn't want them to go to waste.  Reading is something that our family has put a high priority on.  I have the theory that there is no one on this earth who doesn't enjoy reading.  People who think that they don't like it just haven't found the right book yet.

During my college years, I had a roommate who told me she hates reading.  That just wouldn't do!  So, every night I tried to read to her out of Percy Jackson; The Lightning Thief.  She started getting into it.  However, the semester got busy, and it didn't look like I would have time to finish it with her.  I had told her that when we finished it, I would buy us icecream and we would watch the movie, and so she took it upon herself to finish it on her own time!  That was better than anything I could have hoped for.  She liked the book, and she spent the whole movie complaining about how different it was from the book.

Ah, true success.  A budding reader in the making.  She even took the next book in the series to start reading, but I don't think she finished it before I got married and moved out with all of my books.

If you think you don't like reading, try a different book.  Harry Potter (though I do have some issues with the series) has done wonders for the youth of the next generation.  I think that series has done more to promote reading amongst children than any other book series ever!  That's quite an achievement.

If you keep exploring, you're bound to find a series you like.  Once you do, reading will cease to become a chore and will become an adventure!