Read ALL the books

This is the stack a "few" books they brought to me to read to them. (Apparently as many as Will and Lexa could carry.) I started marathon story time and had all 4 of them in the chair with me at one point.

I love that they love books. I remember reading one book after another book to Timmy when he was a toddler, an hour or more everyday. He's still always says, "One more chapter!" everytime I finish reading to him today.  Will is really getting into books now too. We could probably read stories all day as well.

 It's hard for me though because Hugh usually starts grabbing the book and crying. I think he notices I'm not paying much attention to him.

Those books have stayed in the living room for a few days now, and Lexa and Will keep bringing me a handful to read. 

Timmy keeps picking one up to read himself. Lexa too, a little.

Summer Reading

We sometimes get books in the mail from Granddad for the kids. We went through the Man in the Moon series this spring, which were great. He just got one from him called Ollie, and Timmy cracked it open and started reading immediately. 

Night Reading

Lexa reads to me at night when she goes to bed, and then I read to her. She's been enjoying listening to the Beverly Cleary Ramona books that Aunt Sara gave us. 

Learning to Read

Timmy is learning to read. It's awesome and amazing to see him getting better. He picks up a new word usually after one or two repititions. Patrick spelled movie when talking to me about the possibility of him doing that with the kids, so as not to get them excited yet in case it didn't happen last weekend, and Timmy got it. Oh no! We're starting to lose spelling as a way of keeping secrets around him. Annoyed, but mostly happy about this! He's getting better at it really quickly too. It's cool to see his improvements. Last year it was a struggle to get him to practice. Now we have a bedtime routine of him reading to me first before I read to him. He actually wants to do it and likes getting to have it added to his reading log for school. He's loved books since he was a toddler. I'm excited that some day in the not too distant future he'll start being able to read them on his own and continue to grow up loving books, learning and reading!

Harry Potter

A few months ago I said to Timmy, "This summer how about I read you a book about a boy whose a wizard named Harry?."

Timmy: "Does it have dragons?"
Me: "Only a little bit, but it has hippogriffs."
Timmy: "Yay!!"

He loves it. We're on to the fourth book now. I read it to him at bedtime after he practices reading to me. He really loved the silly parts of the first two books. Anything about Neville Longbottom's toad or messes and mischief, and he's laughing out loud. He likes Harry's firebolt broomstick, the parts about dragons and riding hippogriffs. He gets really nervous and stands up in bed when he's worried about them doing something that will get them in trouble. The prospect of being caught by teachers is way scarier to him than Lord Voldemort or dementors. He'll sometimes ask me not to read a part where Harry and friends are sneaking around when they shouldn't be.

A few days ago Lexa and Timmy were playing out in the backyard together. I looked out the window, and they were holding sticks and pointing them at things doing spells.

Timmy chose to be Harry Potter for Halloween. He was surprised that everyone was calling him Harry and knew who Harry Potter was. We told him that a lot of people have read the books. He got best costume in his class on book character parade day. 

I'm really enjoying sharing the books with him, especially the first couple, where Harry is younger.

Granddad and Books

Granddad always picks out some really great childrens' books to have for reading to the kids when they visit.

Books

I'm starting to read my son all the books I remember from my own childhood, and I can't wait for tales of a fourth grade nothing, Narnia etc, and sharing them with him the most wonderful part of parenting him so far. I love to read and I hope that my children inherit that love. We have lots of books around, read to them, and they see us reading all the time. Timmy would look at books with me all day or until he ran out of books. He can't get enough. Lexa has started bringing me books and pointing at the pictures a little bit. I am excited about when the kids will be old enough to read great books! .I love collecting kids books and reading the books with the kids. We've discovered some really wonderful children's books together. Timmy also likes me to read him nonfiction books about bugs, space, trucks, and animals.

Read, Read, Read

Daddy reads stories. There's a whole large pile of books at his feet that he's already read through. Timmy will usually keep bringing you more and more books until you've run out of books or time.

Book: Last Child in the Woods

I love reading when I get a chance so I think I'll go ahead and post some book reviews every once in awhile.
This is a book I recently read that's moved me to get outside more with the kids.

Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv is a good book that got me thinking about nature and education and how important, even vital, hands on, first hand, experience in nature is for children, not from a computer or tv screen. The book gave you a feeling that Americans are losing nature in their lives and that the next generation is growing up with no appreciation or love for nature, no loyalty to it, and so no interest in protecting it. If today's children can't even name the plants and animals around them, they aren't going to grow up to care about protecting them. I dearly want my kids to grow up playing in nature. It's fun, healthy, calming. It's what kids have always done. It reminded me of how fortunate I was to have parents who loved and taught us about nature, taking us hiking, camping and exploring all through growing up. I realized how much I loved following creeks, catching tadpoles, and collecting flowers and rocks and how important those experiences were for me. My favorite memories involve swimming in the river, fishing on my grandmother's dock at the lake, looking at the stars. I want my children to have this too and feel sad that this is largely gone due to the over scheduling, the fear of allowing children to wander off on their own to explore, the permissive use of electronic entertainment, suburban sprawl and fear of litigation. We are disadvantaging our children spiritually, psychologically, intellectually, and physically by bringing them inside, in front of a screen. The point is that children need nature, especially free unstructured play where they can wander, discover and create, and that our society has too much fear of nature and has stopped allowing a lot of free play. Our changing landscape and culture are taking children away from nature. Now that it's becoming more apparent that we really need to become more environmentally aware, children are actually getting further and further away from the natural world. Gone are the days of freely roaming kids who spent their days climbing trees, playing in the creeks or woods, and watching clouds and butterflies, effortlessly forging a deep relationship with nature. The author explores what the latest research is saying about our human need for contact with nature, as well as a variety of consequences that are being noticed as we separate our children from nature. The book talks about the change in how children were relating to nature 40 years ago and how they are today. It explores the effects that technology and too much time inside are having on our children and on the life of the planet. Louv talks about experiential education, which he believes will actually produce more conservationists. People who are taught morality primarily through lecture and guilt aren't really that motivated to care. But people who experience the natural world first-hand are more likely to notice it's decline or absence and have a desire to preserve it. It's so good for kids to play outdoors. The book pointed out that kids who spent time in nature showed marked improvement in concentration, centeredness, etc., even people who had just been exposed to views of trees and growing things. Our children need to get back to free playing in nature. It was a great reminder and motivator to me, as a parent, to just let my children play outside unstructured. It has inspired me to make a regular habit of taking them out in nature on hikes, to the park, and out in the backyard, looking at trees and clouds and bugs, everyday. They really embrace it. Being children, they instinctively LOVE the outdoors, and playing in it. It's getting me up, away from my books and the Internet and lure of the TV. Throughout the book, personal stories weave the sections together. It's a little repetitive and largely anecdotal approach to supporting his argument that playing in nature makes kids better off in a myriad of ways. So, although it's not empirical, it makes some good points that I agree with and has really motivated me to get outside with the kids everyday.

Storytime

The sweetest picture. He's reading to Lexa.

Timmy's first time at Kyle Field. We went to the College Station vs. Bryan high school football game. It was a good game. College Station tigers won. Timmy liked the band's hats and drums. We saw the lights on an airplane in the night sky and he told me it was a spaceship. He really wanted to ride in the ambulance that was parked next to the field.

One other thing about this picture. I am SO going to get on the ball about losing post baby weight now.