This afternoon I finished reading I Survived the Japanese Tsunamis, 2011 to my boys. I had no intention of reading the entire book in two days, but once we got rolling, there really weren't too many places to stop. Maybe because the book was intended for audiences that are a little more mature than 3 and 5 years old. I'm thinking that the scary and realistic scenarios might have been intended for late elementary or middle school students. But after Boy Wonder begged me to teach him about tsunamis and earthquakes last week, I knew that this was a must-read. It was intense, but worth the time spent reading.
We've made it through two weeks of homeschooling and I'm realizing that I've been missing out on so much by not reading to my boys. It's not that I didn't read to my boys, but I never tried reading lengthy chapter books with actual plots and developed characters. In the past, getting them both to settle down to listen to the stories has always been an ordeal. So I just figured that neither child was interested in a book that lacked illustrations. Boy was I wrong!
Even though the beginning of our reading sessions can be a little chaotic (think 3 yr old pinching big brother while little sister is crying), after a few minutes, everyone seems to settle down and become attentive to our story. They even got so involved in our book yesterday that the boys got upset when I stopped reading halfway through the book. (There may or may not have been tears.) They actually enjoyed it and didn't want me to stop.
Boy does this open a new door of opportunity! The possibilities are endless as to what we can read and explore in literature together. We certainly won't be skipping out on the dozens of children's books that I've collected, but we'll definitely be able to dive deeper into history and fantasy worlds as we enter the realm of chapter books.
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