little house

When I was a girl, I read all the "Little House" books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Well, I read all of them except Farmer Boy. Almanzo never did interest me too much. I don't know exactly how I got into reading, I was too young to remember the details. But, I do remember doing a lot of reading as a kid. Not just the "Little House" books, either. Lots and lots of books... from Go Dog, Go to Little House to Encyclopedia Brown, Beverly Cleary, Judy Blume, and Nancy Drew and Choose Your Own Adventure.... la la la and the list goes on.

So, how do you get your kids interested in reading? Conventional wisdom says that you do it by reading to them starting at a very young age. Well, we've been doing that, and I do think it works. My kids are certainly interested in books. The Babe's favorite book these days is the big book of Curious George stories, but only when I can convince her that we should read a story and not just a letter from the Sesame Street Dictionary. I don't know how much more I can take of that one.

So, out of sheer boredom on my part, and a desire to get The Babe interested in other books besides just those two, I took a trip to the library and came home with the first book in the "Little House" series: Little House in the Big Woods. The Babe and I read a chapter each day while The Boy is napping, and we have almost finished the book - - just one more chapter to go. I was worried about this at first, because these books do not have many pictures, and I wasn't sure if The Babe, at 4.5 years old, was ready for this. I needn't have worried. She looks forward to our "chapter book" as she calls it, and I am enjoying re-reading the same stories I must have read 100 times over when I was a girl.

I hope my plan works, and The Babe learns to love reading. We shall see.