There is no surprise that when I look back on photos of Darius, I have one of him reading with nearly every member of our family (with exception to me, of course, since I took all the photos). We read Darius his first book when he was just a day old.
Neville is the primary reader in our house. I can only read a couple of books before I'm simply over it. As a busy working mom, it's hard for me to sit for 15 minutes during the peak evening hours to just read. There's laundry, and dishes, and lunches to be packed, and a dozen other things screaming at me to get done right this instant.
While I manage the chaos of our crazy beautiful lives, Neville manages the nightly bedtime routine that includes reading books to our kindergartner. Neville can read to Darius for an hour or more. I hear them at night bonding over Dr. Seuss or Captain Underpants or, the newest fave, Viola Swamp. Sometimes, I'll hide behind the door to eavesdrop on their conversations. Neville frequently changes the story and Darius will get him back on track. I love hearing Neville's different voices to the characters or how he can make Darius laugh by changing the names of the characters to members of our family.
Now that Darius is reading on his own, I'll always stop whatever I'm doing to hear him read. I love listening to my child read a book. When he reads, you can practically seeing the brain waves firing off and making connections. It's amazing that books that were a challenge just a few weeks ago are now "easy peasy lemon squeezy." When he graduated to early chapter books last month, I had to hold myself back from shamelessly bragging to all my friends.
Darius wasn't an early reader. But when it clicked, boy did it click. While he can read very independently on his own, I love that he still wants to snuggle up on someone's lap and listen to a book. I don't think we ever did anything special to create a love of reading in our house. We simply read.
Photo of Darius,age 18 months, reading with his daddy in bed.
This post was inspired by this month's Yahoo MotherBoard topic about celebrating reading during America Reads month. Check out what the working moms of Yahoo are saying about managing kids and careers at Yodeling Mamas.
