Snowy Day

Both Brian and Sean love books. This has been one of my greatest hopes for my children: to love books.

I remember when I was a child I would sneak out of bed and go sit in the closet and read every night. My parents would come in and find me reading and send me back to bed. Back to the closet I would go after they left me again! I could never get enough of books. I loved reading the Little House books, Anne of Green Gables, Trixie Belden, Nancy Drew. You name it, I read it.

It is so interesting to see the difference in children raised in the same home. Both of my parents are readers. My sister Lori and I are also voracious readers. However, my brother Michael, and sister Kellie would rather do most anything other than read. It doesn't make any sense to me coming from the same parents, growing up in the same house.

I remember taking a class to get my teaching license in VA called Reading in the Classroom. The point of the class was to help teachers to see how they could integrate reading into their curriculum no matter what they were teaching. One of the first activities we did in the class was to talk about our own experiences and perceptions of reading. It was amazing to see the difference in the adults in the class. We fell into 2 distinct groups: readers and non-readers. When the instructor dug a little deeper, it was evident that the readers were read to as children, and the non-readers were not. It was fascinating to see the impact that parents have on their children from a very young age and how what we do as parents can really affect the children for their whole lives. This was before I even had children of my own, and this has stuck with me ever since.

This week we have hit the ground running with The Snowy Day. I'm taking a relaxed approach with school for the boys. We are mostly just reading together. It is my goal to cultivate an environment of loving books in this house because I know how books can really enhance your life. Brian has really understood the book. I've asked him many questions about the story, and he has been able to answer them and narrate back to me. Even Sean has picked up on the story. He knows which character is Peter (by his red snowsuit). This has been a great book for us to read this week as we have had snow 3 times this week. We haven't had any accumulation, but the boys have really liked watching the "no" falling!