Reading Time

Jane and Charlie and I just finished this book together. I didn't love it, the kids enjoyed it more.

So far, my kids have all learned to read at totally different ages. Jane loved to be read to, and still does, so I used to read book after book to her while she'd literally sit for hours. I actually never even thought to have her start reading on her own, until grade two, because she was learning to love books so much and I thought that was so valuable. In grade two she started reading more on her own and half way through she was just pouring over books and has been since. The other day I suggested a book she should read and she said, "Mom, I want to, but I have a goal to finish The Little Princess, because I've been reading three books at a time so it's taking me so long to finish it. After I'm done I'm going to read one the books from Grammy." I loved that she had a stack of books on the go, that she had a reading plan mapped out and that she was making reading goals on her own!

Charlie started reading in grade one. He reads every single word and must understand everything or he can't continue. He's like that about everything, very thorough. He likes to read aloud to the younger kids which I think is sweet. He's reading the fourth Harry Potter right now.

Jacob has been reading since last summer. I guess being the third kid means you soak up what the older kids are doing by osmosis. He reads the scriptures out loud and Tim and I just laugh at the words he reads. It's crazy. He just finished the second Harry Potter and he's only in Kindergarden! 

It's been good for our kids to move at their own pace. I like that we get to read what we want when we want and some days that means spending the whole afternoon on the porch swing reading with blankets and snacks. 

Tim has the kids read to him before they go to bed each night. We use the McGuffey Readers for their reading practice. They are reeeeally old. I copied a blurb about them below.

It is estimated that at least 120 million copies of McGuffey's Readers were sold between 1836 and 1960, placing its sales in a category with theBible and Webster's Dictionary. Since 1961 they have continued to sell at a rate of some 30,000 copies a year. No other textbook bearing a single person's name has come close to that mark.

In 1835, the small Cincinnati publishing firm of Truman and Smithasked McGuffey to create a series of four graded readers for primary-level students. McGuffey was recommended for the job by Harriet Beecher Stowe, a longtime friend. He completed the first two readers within a year of signing his contract, receiving a fee of $1,000 ($20,000 in 2012 dollars). While McGuffey compiled the first four readers (1836-1837 edition), the fifth and sixth were created by his brother Alexander during the 1840s. The series consisted of stories, poems, essays and speeches. The advanced Readers contained excerpts from the works of well-regarded English and American writers and politicians such as John Milton, Lord Byron and Daniel Webster.