Another Reader Is Born?

My kids are rabid readers. I just can't keep them in books. A trip to the library could happen every other day, and they still wouldn't have enough reading material to satisfy their voracious appetites.

I say this not as a "mommy bragging" moment -- though I am very proud of them -- but more as a "mommy excitement" moment. It utterly facinates me how quickly they devour the books we check out.

(For awhile I tried to limit their weekly library book reserve to 5 books each to keep it tidy and to remember how many we borrowed. But how could I possibly say no to "Could I please take out 7, Mommy? There are these two other books that I was hoping to read.")

And that's not even beginning to count the speed at which bookstore giftcards are used to extend their personal libraries. Sometimes the newly-purchased books are read before we even get home.

Hmm...

I was reading this blog post about readers being "born or made," and I have to agree with the author that most readers are born.

I've seen many kids who live in households filled to the brim with books, who have little to no interest in cracking open a page or two of one. That said, however, I think exposure and parental interest plays a key part in the process, too, as well as (gulp!) turning off (gasp!) the ultimate zapper of book enthusiasm: the television.

Perhaps it helps, too, that my hubby and I both are book lovers?

But years ago when naptimes ended, I began a reading tradition in our house. I decided to continue that "quiet time/mommy break" by enforcing a one-hour reading time right after lunch each day -- with Saturdays "off." It gave all of us a break and forced the kids to look into another "world" for a little while. Even now, if time and our schedules allow, that reading time extends voluntarily.

Okay. So enter our new little guy, 5-month-old Ethan. Will he be a "born reader," too? Well, if he continues his current interest in "eating" the letters and words he sees on t-shirts and studying the packed bookshelves that he's been staring at since birth, I'd have to say yes.

Only time -- and a pile or two of his own books -- will tell.