Monday, June 9, 2014

READ!

I majorly hate when people start blogs and then don't write on them for like, oh, a year and then all of the sudden come back and say, "Oh, I'm sorry. I've been busy having a life, so I haven't had time for this blog." Um, then why'd you start it in the first place? Who knows why. It's not like I didn't know I would be busy. Hello? I'm raising a human. Yes. I'm going to be busy. I guess I just wanted something else to complain about having to do.

So here I am, vowing {like every other too-busy-to-blogger out there} to at least acknowledge that I have a blog that I really do want to post things to so that my daughter can see how amazing and super fun her life was when she was too little to remember. We'll see....

I'll spare you the boring line of "We have been doing SO MUCH!" because, well, duh. Of course we have. I can't just come back on here and try to recap the last 8 months of our lives on one post. Plus, most people that read this already know me anyway {Hi, Mom!} and know that we moved to a new state, I got a new job teaching firsties, and Olivia scoots on her butt instead of crawling and STILL isn't walking at 14 months. So, this is me sparing you those kinds of details.

I was reading something that said that little kiddos should read like 1,000 books before kindergarten. When I first read it, that number seemed awfully high. But really, it's not! It's totally doable. If you read a different book every day with your sweeties, 1,000 books will be read before you know it. And we're getting to the point in this house where Olivia will actually sit still and listen and point to the books when I'm reading them to her, so we are actually up to 2 a day now. {As of last night, anyway.}
So, my thought is that I just thought it'd be neat to start writing down or recording some way all the books that we read together now that's she's interested and understands the concept of reading. I did read to Olivia when she was much younger, but she looked around at everything else except the book when I did, and once she starting faux crawling, getting her to sit still for a book wasn't on her agenda. I still read to her most nights, but it wasn't until recently that she has really started to take an active interest in reading. This is when Olivia was about 3 months old and look! She's actually looking at the pages!


I still think that the most important thing you can do with your baby - even your itty bitty - is read to them. Read, read, read. They'll eventually take an interest, and especially when you have a fresh one, it's easy to read to them because they're just kinda like blobs. They can't walk or crawl or really even move, so they can't get away. They have no choice but to at least hear your voice as you read to them. Sometimes they'll look at the pages, too! I just think it will make the difference in so many aspects of their lives - from school to just being a successful human. Reading -- It's survival. Get your kids acclimated early.

Olivia so amazing and she's definitely the smartest baby ever because I will ask her to point to things like the pig or the baby in the book that we're reading and she totally does. Genius. So reading with her is starting to get really, really, really fun because she's taking an interest with me! I think we'll visit the library this summer. She'll love it.

I just thought it would be neat to have a collection of all of the books that we read to her. Here is the website that I found to track her books: www.reading-rewards.com.
The website has all kinds of features, but I just use the "My Library Feature" to list all of the books. I KNOW I do not have time to be tracking how many minutes we read every night. Maybe when she is older, she can use some of those features.

Anyway, that's all I wanted to share! Happy Reading! And here's to making sure I post more stuff on here like a good momma should!