Fortunately, I am raising four children who love to read. I say fortunately, because I think it would kill me if any one of my children refused to pick up a book for pleasure. I haven't gotten much support from Randy in this area: he often says he doesn't have time to read, when the reality is that he reads so much in his studies, he prefers to pursue other diversions in his free time. Can't necessarily say that I blame him. Nevertheless, for what I suppose would be obvious reasons, he doesn't preach the virtues of reading to the kids the way I do (or perhaps he prefers not to beat them over the head since I appear to be doing a bang-up job in that respect).
When we homeschooled, reading was never an issue. Everything we did, every subject we covered, involved reading a book. (Thank you, Sonlight!) And the girls have instinctively taken after their mom in their willingness to try different genres of literature. They're pretty adventurous when they want to be, especially Darcy. And let's face it, before Sawyer was able to read, he was content to have anything read to him--he wasn't choosy.
Tyler, on the other hand, caused me particular angst with his dogged, stubborn determination not to veer outside his comfort zone and read anything besides science fiction (and it was even better if it had Star Wars somewhere in the title). I am exaggerating somewhat: I can think back to a myriad of times that I brought home books from the library in the hope that Tyler, for lack of anything better to do, would pick one up and get absorbed in it, and many times he did. So I guess it was more his mindset I objected to, if that makes any sense. And hear me on this: I am a big believer in leaving well enough alone as long as a child is reading something, so please don't misunderstand and think I have harangued Tyler about his choice of reading material. No, I have kept my feelings to myself for the most part. Aren't I saintly??! :-)
But I have already admitted to making the speech about worlds waiting to be discovered in the books on the library shelves, so I might as well admit that that speech was made mostly for Tyler's benefit. And almost from the time that I realized that Tyler was turning up his nose at perfectly good literature, at books that I knew he'd LOVE if he'd just give them half a chance, I have tried various methods to ease him out of his comfort zone. When he was younger I would simply read to him, and that worked just fine except that, well, I was the one doing the reading. So if I wasn't reading the book, then neither was he. I enforced a mandatory minimum time limit each day during which Tyler had to read books that featured something other than Jedis and light sabers. That worked for a while . . . until I forgot to set a timer or forgot my rule altogether. I suggested books on CD, thinking that at least listening to great books would be better than not reading at all. Surprisingly, for a kid growing up squarely in the Technological Age, using a CD player wasn't even an incentive to get him to break out of the mold. Shocking, right?
Sshhhh . . . don't tell Tyler, but he's finally hooked!! And I am tickled to death! Full disclosure: The series of books he is currently devouring like Spicy Pepper Penne (his favorite dish, in case you're wondering about the reference) would probably still fall into the sci-fi genre, but there's not a single light saber or clone trooper or laser gun or Wookie to be found in their pages. To give you an idea of just how hooked Tyler is, let me just say that he started out listening to the first novel on CD (yes, I decided to try that trick again) WHILE reading along in the book, and pretty soon he was carrying the book to the breakfast table, in the car on the way to school (broken CD player), to appointments, and anywhere else he thought he could squeeze in a few minutes of reading time. Hallelujah!
On our recent trip to Auburn, we had a long drive and for the first time EVER, it wasn't just the girls who packed books for the trip! Yes! Tyler brought Book 2 of his beloved series with him, and that's when the nauseating realization hit me: He was going to finish the book about halfway through our trip. I began to wonder if he might experience withdrawal symptoms and if we'd have to put him in a room and let him dry out overnight. Sure enough, he closed the book on Book 2 (okay, bad pun) Tuesday night, our first night in Auburn. Ay-yi-yi! But Book 3 was waiting on him when we got home and he's just a couple of chapters shy of finishing it. In fact, I ordinarily would not condone such behavior but no sooner had we finished dinner tonight than Tyler went up to his room and spent the next TWO HOURS reading, reading and reading some more. And best of all--oh heavenly day!--a few days ago when I asked if he might like to read a particular NON-sci-fi series after he's done with his current one his eyes lit up and he said, "Yeah! I think I would!"
Don't bother getting me anything for Christmas--hearing those five words was the only gift I wanted!
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2 comments:
Did I miss something? What series is he reading???
Pe-Paw said he carried his book with him to the basketball game Tuesday night!
MM
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