One of the benefits of my renewed reading habit that I hadn’t seen coming was with my youngest Ezra. He has lots of energy and loves to be busy. His favorite thing is being outside, digging, collecting sticks and rocks, just being hands on with nature.
Ezra is also very inquisitive so I didn’t think much when he started asking me questions about reading. Why are you doing that? What is that thing? while pointing at my eReader. Being more deliberate about reading meant he saw me doing it more. In the past if I was reading it was probably early in the morning or after he went to bed.
We always have read to him each night at least. These are typically kids books. Books with lots of pictures, short stories you finish in one sitting. Typically multiple ones while lying in bed as the final step in our bedtime routine.
It didn’t surprise me when a few days ago he came up to me with James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl asking me to read it to him. What did surprise me though was how he sat right up, still and calm as could be, and listened intently to the first few questions. Taking in the story, asking questions about it, and wondering what would come next.
We’ve been reading it steady since then a few chapters here and there throughout the day, and then more at night cuddled up in bed. I thought he may get tired of it, but each time he comes and sits up and we read and talk about it together.
Looking back I guess it shouldn’t surprise me too much. About a year ago I read him one of my childhood favorites as our night time book, The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein. It was a little deeper maybe than some of our other books. He asked lots of questions and we talked about how I loved him like the tree loved the boy. Enough to give him everything he had just to make the boy happy. The next day used his blocks to build a tree and a boy. He told me the boy was playing with the tree and loved the tree. As he played the boy took parts of the tree to build things and as he was done he had the boy sitting on the stump of the tree.
These reading sessions have become some of my favourite times of our day. We have a full collection of Roald Dahl books. I’m hopeful that I can instill in him a real love of reading and that we can continue on with this for a long time to come.
Sandy McFadden 