Library

I've got about 5 posts of pictures to put in here...in fact, I think that several of the pictures are already uploaded, and I just need to do some writing.  It has been hard to write recently.  Not that we have been super busy...not that we haven't been doing anything...not that there isn't anything to say...  I think my creative brain has kind of dulled a bit for the time, probably due to lack of practice (since I haven't been writing), and also due to the fact that there is too MUCH to say, and I can't get it all in, so I just resort to writing nothing.  Anyway, that is not what this post is about.  It is about the library, clearly, as I already wrote on the title, but have not actually written about yet. 

Wow. Tangent. 

Have I mentioned how much we love the library?  Over the past few months we have fallen into a weekly routine there.  We always check out a movie or two, and they are due back a week later, so we HAVE to go return it.  The boys are getting to be so good in the library.  They still don't remotely understand the "shhhhh" factor, but we're getting there.  We go on Monday mornings, right when they open, so it isn't very crowded.  They know that they can dig through 3 things:  the movies, the board books, and the paperback early readers.  All 3 of these are not really in order.  I don't let them near the actual shelves...that would be chaos. They just pull the books/movies out and look through all of them, and I can just pick them all up and put them back in the right container.  I have been able to really scan the shelves and find good books for us to take home.  Z has been learning to look for the books he likes, and knows what sections to look in for "his" books.  The library ladies all know us (we're hard to NOT know), and are kind to us and helpful. 

I think we currently have 28 books out.  A book for me (I was reading Huck Finn for a book club), a few preschool teaching books (I had grand plans of doing a letter a week starting after Labor Day, we haven't even started), movies for the kids, read aloud books for Z (we got a Boxcar Children book and 2 Magic TreeHouse books for him today), books for Z to practice reading (a first reader on ducks, another about Cars), craft books for Z (currently they are Halloween magazines, and today he found a book on Star Wars crafts you can make), random books the boys pull out (Thomas the Train-I won't be reading that and a Wizard of Oz flip book), and read aloud books for the boys that I choose (currently some we have are The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Go-Go Gorillas). 

Part of Z's homework is to be read to/read at least 5 days for 10 minutes.  We typically read 20-25 minutes every night after the littles are in bed and before he goes to bed.  I LOVE to read with him.  And he really likes it too.  I normally make him practice a bit by reading an easy book (Go Dog Go) or his "books" that get sent home from school, then I will read to him. 

I read to the little boys normally twice a day.  Once before naptime and once before bedtime.  Depending on how much time we have and my attitude, I let each kid pick one or two (or if I'm in a really good, patient mood, THREE!) books.  When it is time for their book, they get to sit on my lap, while the other two sit on either side of me.  Z sometimes joins us too, and he sits next to one of the boys.  They do a pretty good job listening.  I sometimes get annoyed with their book choices (over and over and over again!), but I know it is good.  I get a bit claustrophobic, too...3 kids climbing on me, pushing and shoving to see the pictures, pointing at pictures...it is hot...ugh.  But they love it.  In fact, that is the comment I hear most often (or see most often) when I pick them up from Sunday school or Bible study, "Wow, your boys love to read!".  Give them a lap and a book and they are in heaven!

And me, well, I read when I can.  A few weeks ago I was able to read an entire Jodi Picoult book in about 30 hours.  I started one night, and the next morning the boys literally entertained themselves for about two and a half hours while I read.  Crazy (but wonderful!).  I have been in a book club and we have been reading classics:  Huck Finn, Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre, 1984, etc.  It has been fun, and I have loved reading some of those books. 

I guess I had some words built up.  ;)  That is our house and reading!

Books

We have had so much fun this summer reading.  The little boys have finally been able to sit and listen to books, and have had the attention span for it, so I can read to them easily for a good 20-30 minutes.  And Z is great listening to me read books to him too, which I love. 

I have such fond memories of the library and picking out books.  I'm so glad that mom made that such a priority...probably because she loved reading as well.  It has been fun to pass it down to the boys.  And now Z loves going, and can pick out his own books, and since summer began the little boys are now able to go in to the library and not cause a total ruckus, which I'm sure everyone appreciates!  They have gotten good enough that I can leave them for a minute or two to go look for books for them while they look at the books or movies they have already gotten.  It is so nice.  I also love our library, where the librarians now recognize us (my entourage is hard to miss, and our particular library branch is a small one). 

All of the boys completed the summer reading program and won prizes for reading, and I am so proud of that.  I hope the boys love to read as much as I do (and Nate does too!). 

We love books

I am so glad that my kids love books.  If we are upstairs (where the books are) there is almost always someone who wants to be read to. (We don't always love that...and talk about feeling like a jerk when you tell a kid you just don't want to read another book!).  While all of our family was in town, though, they had several willing readers, and they jumped on that opportunity.  Everyone read to the boys both individually and as a group.  And kids being read to is just about is cute as you can get, so I got some good pics.

 My new favorite picture:  Z reading to the little boys! 

Books

Reading, part 2

A month ago or so I posted about how horrid it was to read with the kids, and how much we dreaded it.  You can read it here. 

In the past few weeks or so, we have made a HUGE breakthrough. I think it was just age and timing.  Now we make the little boys sit on the couch while we sit on the floor and read to them.  We don't let them get down or grab the book (that took a bit of work and practice, but they finally get it).  But the past 2 nights, we have had their full attention for over TWENTY minutes of reading!  That is probably a solid 8-10 books.  They will now sit and listen to several different ones, not just the annoying and all torn up animal books, but they love those too.  The love books with rhythm to them...special favorites are Dr. Suess-ish books like Hop on Pop, The Foot Book, and Hand Hand Fingers Thumb,  but they also LOVE Five Little Monkeys Jumping on a Bed (I will have to get video of them shaking their fingers as the "doctor").  They are fans of books by Sandra Boynton (Barnyard Dance and Pajama Time).  They love Llama Llama Red Pajama.  Eric Carle books are super too (Brown Bear, Brown Bear and The Very Busy Spider).  Two last favorites are by Marion Dane Bauer, How Do I Love You and I Love You Through and Through. 

All of our books are just about in shreds, even the board books, because they are so loved (not complaining at all though, there are worse things to love!). They each have a My First Encyclopedia of ----  in their beds, and it is a big kid book, and the pages are mangled and torn out.  They have been relegated to the beds because they were so fought over and the shreds were all over the house. At least now they're just in and under the cribs!     

One more fun thing is about L.  The kid LOVES books.  He will happily sit in anyones lap to look at a book.  He just backs it on up and plops down.  Then he grabs your hand, opens it up (the thumb separate from the fingers) and shoves the book it.  If you don't "get" what he is doing, he will shut your fingers for you, then open the first page of the book.  I love it.   

Z also likes to read to the boys...sometimes.  I love this pic of L trying to climb into Z's lap.  (These were taken when Z was sick and his legs were a mess). 

 

Books

Books are such a hard thing in our house now.  The boys love them.  But sometimes too much.  They fight over them and tear them to shreds.  We have had to put away Brown Bear, Brown Bear, God Made You Nose to Toes, and The Very Busy Spider, to name a few.  They scream and shriek and cry and yell and tear and fight when we get them down.  And all of those are in 2 or more pieces now.  
Another difficult thing is the actual reading of a book to them.  L will typically sit on a lap and listen.  In fact, he will physically grab my hand, open it up, and put the book in it.  C and N love to flip to the pages they like, even if this involves taking the book out of a hand (mine, Nate's, or a brothers).  And sometimes I just want to read the book, or one of the other brothers wants to hear the book, but there is one or more hands grabbing and turning pages. 

And then the physical logistics of getting 3 kids in a lap.  I typically have to read on the floor with my legs out straight...sitting on a couch and trying to snuggle is a joke.  Sometimes they face me and I have 2 on one leg and one on the other, or 1 on each leg and one in between my legs, and I hold the book right in front of my body and have to read upside down.  Add Z into this mix, jumping on a leg also.  Sometimes I can get an arm around 2 kids (one on each leg) and they face away from me and I can read the book to them like a normal person (again, add Z laying on my back looking over my shoulder, the third kid on the other side or trying to shove a different book in my hands).  Here is a picture of Nate's attempt. 

The whole time, though, they are fighting over what book to read, where they are sitting, and who is messing with them.  And forget me taking one kid for some one-on-one time while Nate takes the others.  If I am reading to one, he wants to join the other two.  Or if another hears the book I'm reading, he will wiggle away from Nate to come hear the "better" book. 

Nate has managed to sit with all of them and read (they love Hop on Pop with him!). 

They also have only a few favorite books, and they have been read over and over and over and over and over.  Most of them are animal books.  We try to read new books to them, but they just tear them out of our hands and/or just climb off of my lap to go get a different on. 

I am sad to say that it is really just a frustrating experience.  We kind of dread the book reading time.  I wish we didn't and I know (HOPE) it will get better, because I love to read to Z, and had the same hopes for the little boys.  We know that we are spoiled by Z...he has always had an amazing focus and attention span.  They love books already, so that at least is good.  And they are happy reading on their own, as well.  We are hoping it is just their age and that they will get there.   

Books

I got the boys out of the tub and sent them into the family room. I was grabbing pj's and was planning on popping in a movie for a few minutes until bedtime because I was tired and crabby and Nate wasn't home. But look at what I found when I got out there...and not one of these was posed. 

So glad that my boys love to read!!!

And I had forgotten I had taken a few others earlier in the month, so here are a few more! 

Summer reading

We got Z signed up for the summer reading program at our library.  There is a big chart, and every time you read 20 minutes, you get to color in a circle.  The kid is all about coloring in the circles.  He loves it.  He has colored them all different colors, and is so excited to color them in.  When you get 12 colored, you get a prize (then 12 more, and then 12 more). 

We read James and the Giant Peach first, which he loved.  A lot went over his head, but he got the basic idea.  Now we're reading Charlotte's Web (same thing...a lot over his head, but he gets the basic gist).  Of course, we have also filled in with dinosaur, bug, snake, and shark books! 

Yesterday he got his first prize, and he was so excited! 

Here is his prize: 

That's right, a straw shaped like glasses (the liquid has a long route!).  I can't even tell you how much liquid he drank yesterday!
We are proud of him and love that he loves to read...just like his mama and his daddy.  We were both big readers as kids, and I still LOVE to read. 
Actually, I have started to be able to read again.  The problem with me reading is that I am an all or nothing kind of reader.  When I pick up a book, I don't put it down until I'm done, much to the neglect of my children.  Of course I deal with them...I get them food (and read), I take them outside (and read), they take naps (I read), they go to bed (and I read until late!).  I have been borrowing books from Dad and Dena, my own personal little library.  In the past 6 weeks I have read The Help (loved it), Peace Like a River (ok), The Island (loved it), and Two Rivers (pretty good).  I have waiting on my table The Widow of the South and The Art of Racing in the Rain.  But I am forcing myself to wait for awhile to pick up new books....my kids need me! 
Regardless, we are a reading type of house.  I hope we can foster it in all the boys.  Glad Z is off to a good start, and based on how much the little boys love books already, I don't think we'll have a problem.