For the Love of Books

From the very beginning, I have read to Emily with the hopes that she would be a book lover. There has been times in the past that we have given her a choice between read a book or watch television and she has excitedly exclaimed, "read a book!" One day when she was four, I asked her if she could go anyplace where would she go? She quickly replied, "the library." There was a time that I had to limit the book reading to three books at bed time. Then when she was in Pre-K, I had to break the news to her that she wouldn't always get three books at bed time because some books were longer than others and if the book was a chapter book it may take more nights than one to finish it.

Sunday, Hartford was in his chair reading and Emily was on the couch reading.
Since books are expensive and are extremely hard to store, I use the library a lot. I can easily reserve books on-line. Which is awesome since Emily frequently has requests and the county has a number of libraries. We get e-mails to let us know that our items are being held at the requested branch. Here's a picture of the loot that I got at the library yesterday. 41 items to be correct. The bottom three are Christmas decorating books that I checked out for myself. I tell you, I'm in the mood to decorate for Christmas. In addition, I got Emily a Magic School Bus DVD. She tells me that this series teaches her things and her brain isn't turning into mush when she watches them. I also got 3 Cd's for Emily who has finally discovered there is more songs than Country Road and Father Abraham. She is definitely growing up in many ways.
At the end of Kindergarten, Emily was reading on a 1st grade level. However, she acted as if she was in agonizing pain if I tried to get her to read to me. She just wanted me to do all the reading. Her attitude had to be changed. Since she is turning a deaf ear on my sermons, I had to put some thought into the situation, thus the reading chain. Every time that she reads a book, she gets a link in the chain and I explained to her that I would continue to read to her and even re-read the same book that she just read if she wanted me to. This chain is a success. When I suggested it, she immediately stated that her goal was to get it long enough to reach from one wall to the other wall in her room. Emily has gained the enjoyment and the confidence through this project. I wished that I had thought of it sooner, but better late than never.
Speaking of chains, one of the Christmas projects that I want to do is a ribbon chain. Surely goodness if Martha Stewart can do, I can too. Don't answer that, I'm going to give it a try anyway.