My Mother's Day Wish

My Mother's Day Wish

I've written in the past about the literary disagreements my daughter and I have had, and about some of my anxiety when she struggled with learning to read last year. In the months since I wrote those posts, my kid's reading has really taken off. I'm proud (and relieved) that she's gone from being in the lowest reading group last year to being one of the most fluent readers in her class this spring. But it means even more to me that she truly loves books. She reads under the covers; she reads while brushing her teeth; she'd read at dinner if we let her.

Mostly, she reads the Rainbow Magic books, which appeal to her magical, girly, imaginative side as well as to her love of collecting (she wants to read them all). Even though she loves these books more than I ever will, I couldn't be happier; at her age and stage of reading, it's all about volume, volume, volume, and reading same-ish series books lets her build up her confidence and her reading muscles and reinforces an enjoyment of the written word that will stand her in good stead when she's ready to tackle more challenging material on her own.

Plus, it just warms the cockles of my heart to see my child absorbed in a book. Even if I have to wrest it away from her to get her to go to school or to sleep.

When my daughter was a baby, we used to read her the Rosemary Wells book Read To Your Bunny, a short and sweet picture book about all the ways and places in which parents can read to their children. The last line is "Read to your bunny often, and…your bunny will read to you." When she was little, I took it as a given that this would happen, that she would love books the way we did and would read to us. When she was older and got so frustrated with reading, I wondered if I hadn't been a little naïve. Sometimes it felt like she never really would learn to read, or at any rate would never like it enough to voluntarily pick up a book and read it to us.

But she did, and she does.

In a recent post, Catherine at the Scholastic Preschool Mom blog writes that what she wants most for Mother's Day is time, and suggests that other blogging moms post on what they most wish for.

Me? After a week spent reading and recommending books to kids (and adults) at the library, what I'd love most on Mother's Day is to cuddle with my daughter on our couch and have her read me a book.

Any book would do; I'd even take a chapter or two of Rainbow Magic. I just love to hear my bunny reading to me.

(If you're looking for a Mother's Day book to read to your own bunny, this list of Read-Aloud books that celebrate moms is a great source of inspiration. But the truth is, anything you read together is a gift to your child that will come back to you.)

May 8, 2008

Comments

[charlotte]

Hi Els,

Congratulations to your daughter! And to you.

But I am mainly commenting because I have tagged you for the Five Things Meme.

[MotherReader]

My 3rd grader loves those Rainbow Fairy books too, though she isn't devouring them like your daughter is. But I totally agree on raising confidence in less-than-stellar readers with volume, volume, volume.