Curl up with a good book and your best boy!

As a teacher for almost 13 years, I'm more than happy to get up on a soap box and preach about the importance of reading and modeling a passion for reading. Mr. and I started reading to Curly the first night in the hospital. I find such joy in overhearing Curly read to his bear, his brothers and himself. We have book baskets in every room of the house - paperbacks, hardbacks, board books, flip books, magazines. The boys even see me flipping through the Pottery Barn catalog in the bathoom (the only time I have to do so =)

My dad taught me to read when I was 4 using Little House on the Prairie books. Since I don't really remember, I take his word for it =) But what I DO remember is the feeling of comfort and encouragement I felt when we would have that special time together at night. I wanted him to hear me read, wanted to hear him do the character voices and wanted to fall asleep dreaming about myself in the action of the story.

Throughout my training as an educator and literacy specialist, I've paid special attention to the discussions about reading and boys. Fittingly, I have 3 future male readers of my own.

Here are some recent blogs and posts I've come across that you might be interested in too, sons or daughters:

Guys Read - a web-based literacy program for boys

Books for Boys

Big Guys Books - stunning photography and graphics

Education.com

Daddy's Heroes - a fun book for dads to share with their kiddos - I got his for my niece for Christmas. My brother LOVED it.

Starfall - an online learning game site - FREE and fabulous!

Reading Rewards

I've also shared my website from last year's class (updated mid-decision to take this year off, so please forgive its "crumbs.") I wanted the parents of my students to have everything they needed at their fingertips to support their child in all academic areas. I put a lot of time into the links page so please take a LONG look there =)

Have fun READING. Remember...it's not the quantity, it's not the book, it's the READING that matters.