Read to Me - A Review and Report

The Read-to-Me Challenge over at Jennifer Snapshot's is winding down this week and it's time to give a little report on how we did. I have to say that it was sooooo helpful to take part in this challenge as it made me VERY aware of how often my girls were asking me to read to them (or in the case of N2 bringing me books) and that there were so many opportunities to sit right then and read something. I wasn't even aware of all the reading opportunities that were right under my nose!

I can't say that we read a huge variety of books over the last month ... N1 has recently discovered Dora and so we read several Dora story books over and over. We also made a trip to the library and checked out some new to us books: Rainbow Fish, and Rainbow Fish and the Sea Monster's Cave were both new to us and much enjoyed. We also enjoyed No Spots for Gilda the Giraffe and several Winnie the Pooh books. I think the main thing with N1 was that when she wanted to read, I made every effort to take the time to do so. I would like to get better about our "set-time" for reading in the afternoons after lunch, so that's an area that I still want to work on. :-)

Also, with regarding to my 3-year old, I finally bit the bullet and purchased Picture Book Preschool. I've been eyeing this very informal preschool curriculum for at least a year now, and decided that the Read to Me Challenge was just the prompt to purchase it. I'm enough removed from toddler books that the suggestions she gives me are most helpful, as are the simple prompts for an activity if/when we want to take our reading further. (I have a copy of Before Five in a Row and while I also like that preschool curriculum, it's a bit much right now for my BUSY three-year old ... I think it will be a better fit in another year and a half or so).

With my little N2, we looked at lots and lots of books. She loves turning the pages so we pulled out a couple of our board books that have little interactive things for her (fuzzy fur on bunnies, soft kitty fur, etc.) and looked at those again and again. She also listened somewhat when I read to N1, but her desire to turn pages was somewhat frustrating to N1 so she need to be strategically pinned somehow next to me, or be playing by us as we read for a pleasant experience for all. :-)

We will definitely be continuing our reading together and be working towards some structured time with books ... specifically after lunch for our 3 year old and before bed for the 1 year old. We definitely made our book quota of two a day for the most part so I want to keep that up and add to it and make it a regular part of our day. :-)

Much thanks to Jennifer for hosting this fun reading challenge. Click on over to her site to see how others did on their Read to Me challenge. :-)