Building the Habit of Reading, One “Me-Ow” at a Time

Submitted by: Amy Silvey

Every night, after the bedtime protests have subsided, my 6-year-old daughter picks out the books we’ll read together. “How many can we read?” she always asks. My answer will vary from two to three, though I’m usually convinced to allow more. How can I not? I love book time with Piper.

She carefully makes her selections. Some weeks we read the same books every night. Recently, I bought her It’s All About Me-Ow by Hudson Talbott. I’m pretty sure we read it for two weeks straight, and she laughed just as loud at her favorite parts each and every time.

Recently she started selecting books by theme, which is not always an easy feat. “Tonight, I want all books about spring,” she says. I help her scavenge the shelves. Disney’s The Sweetest Spring—jackpot. Then it only gets harder. We finally find The April Rabbits by David Cleveland (a book from my childhood), which we decide is passable for our theme.

Then she plops the books on my lap and even determines the order I read them in—she always saves her favorite for last, of course. Piper is a great reader already, but during our book time it’s all about me reading to her. It’s our special time together after many a busy day when I see her for a few hours at best.

We’ve read most of the books so often that we have them memorized. I think this helped her as she learned to read. I remember the day she actually read me one of our favorite books. I could tell she wasn’t just reciting it this time. She saw the words and knew what they were. Her entire face lit up with pride.

You know you’ve hit a milestone when your child wants to read a book without pictures. We’ve just reached that point and it’s really fun to think of the possibilities. I’ve been dreaming of reading the Harry Potter books with her since she was born. Now, we’re not so far away.

Name: Amy Silvey
Position/Company: Chief Development Officer, Greenlights for Nonprofit Success
Hometown: Austin, Texas

For the 2014 RED Day (renew, energize, donate) community service project, Keller Williams Realty International partnered with BookSpring. This blog is a part of a “blog-a-thon”, by KW volunteers, to create new content that shares the stories of book-lovers and their favorite books.

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