Books

Isaac is learning how to read in kindergarten and is so proud of himself. Although there are a bundle of sight words that he recognizes, I do not think he has figured out totally how to sound out words. He will do it sometimes but then makes a guess at the word rather than sounding out all the letters for it. 

Isaac has always loved looking at books by himself, and lately Caleb has been doing more "reading" on his own as well.  The other morning when I got out of the shower, I found the boys still in their jammies reading books together. Isaac was reading an easy one aloud to Caleb who listened but was looking at the pictures of another book. (It is normal for Caleb to be playing his football guys while I read on the couch; he just runs over to look at the pictures when it sounds interesting to him.)

Isaac had gotten 21 books at the CCS used book fair so he was happily going through his pile. He even picked out one book for his brother--a Cars book that Caleb eyed while we were helping Isaac shop.

Our mouse tale...

We received a bag of books from one of our youth group families, and in this bag was one of Paul's favorite books--The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary. He has started reading it to the boys. Each night before bed he reads a chapter (or more if they can convince him to keep reading).

The first time Paul read to them, they weren't so sure about listening to the story and decided to color while he read. As the story progressed, the coloring became less and the attention turned to Ralph and his adventures. Our routine now is to get jammies on and teeth brushed and then park ourselves in the living room--Paul in our very worn and well-loved recliner and the boys sprawled on pillows on the floor. And on the nights when I am caught up on work, I get to enjoy the story as well.

What fun for us to see how our boys love books and their stories! During my violin lessons each week, Paul takes the boys to the library to return their books and movies and pick out new ones. Isaac gravitates towards the Lego Star Wars and super hero beginner reader books while Caleb is mainly about picking out his movie (usually The Wiggles or Go, Diego! Go! types). Paul would say that I have fine-tuned the art of reserving books so he always hits "our" reserve shelf and adds those books and movies to our bag. (A friend of mine has an "L" last name so we joke to each other about taking up the entire shelf since she likes to reserve books as much as I do.)

Paul has been talking about the day when he could read his favorite chapter books to the boys, and we can't believe we are already at that point! Oh, the adventures and characters to come...the boxcar children and the world of Narnia are at the top of our list. But for now, we are enjoying the ride with Ralph the mouse.