Reading

I'm an avid reader; I love to read and have since I was little. Growing up, my sister and younger brother would spend part of our summer days walking to the public library to borrow stacks of books to read. And, as I got older, I taught myself how to speed read, which freed up a lot more time to read.

When Scott and I started our family, I promised myself that my kids would love reading as much as me. And, for awhile, I thought I was on the right track with Ryan. He went through his reading assignments from school so fast that I thought, "Yes!"

But then, he discovered sports (and ultimately, lacrosse) and reading took a backseat to everything.

With Ethan, it was a bit of a struggle. He was a lot like Ryan, just reading because of school assignments. When we decided to homeschool him, it became even more challenging because his Aspergers made it hard to gauge where he fell on the reading levels. We tried small chapter books and some shorter kids' novels, but he was resistant and seemed bored.

It was only after I decided to do away with anything that "measured" my kids progress and concentrate on what I thought was important for them to learn and know that we finally found these books in answer to Ethan's reading "dilemma":

Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson series. He found the first book on our bookshelf and proceeded to breeze right through it. When he found out there was a second series, The Lost Hero set, it didn't take him long to read those books either.

Over and over again.

This past summer, he decided to read the Lost Hero series again, and because he seemed so into it, I bought the Percy Jackson encyclopedia for him. It's a "who's who" book of the Greek Gods, written from Percy Jackson's point-of-view, which makes for some sarcastic and hilarious observations. Ethan really gets a kick out of it.

He finished the last book while were in Hawaii, and began looking for a new one when we returned. Luckily, we had the first two books of Riordan's Red Pyramid series, and now he's on the third book.

I love that on most days I'll find him in his room, reading or excitedly telling me about the chapter he'd read.

Meanwhile, Jeff is still a beginning reader and improving everyday. I love how surprised he is when he realizes he just read a whole book on his own, with no struggles. He has so much potential and he continues to get better everyday.

On the other hand, I've never really worried about Vanessa's reading until recently. The Crack Monkeys had a habit of borrowing books from the library and losing them, which resulted in large library fines, which in turn, led Scott and I to the decision to buy books for the kids to start their own "library."

{My mom used to take us to thrift stores and used bookstores where we would find piles upon piles of books for the bookshelf in our bedroom. I remember finding my very first Agatha Christie book at one of those stores when I was 10 years old and being hooked ever since!}

In the past, Vanessa would buy those small chapter books according to her interests at the time -My Little Pony, The Littlest Pet Shop, etc.- but as we approached our second year of homeschooling, it seemed way below what I knew she could read.

And so, much like with Ethan, I began to search through the small library we had. Beverly Cleary, The Magic Treehouse, even Harry Potter didn't seem to interest her and The How To Train Your Dragon series went untouched!

What's a mama to do?

It wasn't until we got back from our vacation and were starting up the second week of the new homeschool year, that I stumbled upon this:

I'd first heard about the movie from my Facebook newsfeed; everyone seemed to be going crazy over it, but I didn't pay much attention because we were planning and packing for our vacation. But, I happened upon the giant display in Barnes & Noble while looking for a math workbook for Jeff, and decided to get it for Vanessa. We're big fans of Disney, so why not buy a book about the children of some of Disney's greatest villains?

I gave it to Vanessa, who looked slightly interested, and crossed my fingers. And toes. I would've crossed my eyes, but I don't possess that talent.

Anyway, by the next day, she was halfway through and excitedly telling me what was going on so far. I had no idea who the characters she was talking about were, but I'd never seen her this excited about reading, so I went with it.

She nearly fainted when I told her there was a movie, and that we could watch it when she finished the book.

She finished the book that night.

The movie was available on Amazon, so we bought it and made a movie night out of it. It's Disney, so there were quite a few cheesy, feel-good moments, but overall, it was a good movie; even my boys enjoyed the singing and dancing!

We've watched it quite a few times since then, and Vanessa continues to read the books over and over again. I'll have to check, but I think there are more books in the series, so hopefully we've found a winner for Vanessa's reading.

Crossing my fingers (and toes).