My "revived" book worm

 

I LOVE BOOKS!!!



I know I said that I would likely post only once a week, but I meant only once a week unless I had something worth mentioning that would warrant more than one post per week :)  So you have to endure another one this week thanks to Jaedyn and the fact that she pleased me SO today!  A little background, Jaedyn has always been a great reader.  She took off reading in Kindergarten and blew through book after book.  She went on to first grade reading chapter books and devoured tons of books that year as well.  However, the next year, we moved schools, which was hard on her.  She had a wonderful teacher, whom we still keep in touch with to this day.  But with changes in curriculum, our crazy life, and anything else that got in the way, her reading slowed down  immensely.  I worried a little and tried to encourage but didn't want to "control" it by forcing her to read for me.  Then we went on another year or so and she read what she had to but not the way she had LOVED it before.  Then last year her interest started to come back around. She would aquire her accelerated reader points within the first week of the six weeks and continue until the end of the six weeks, often totaling more than triple what her point goal was.  She was even beginning to ask for books for Christmas, birthdays, etc again as she had once before.  *Insert elated Momma face here*  But even as well as she did last year I never imagined her year in 5th grade would start out this way. She has only been in school 2 1/2 weeks but she couldn't wait until the library opened.  As soon as it did she immediately checked out 3 chapter books and read them within 2-3 days.  She had even read one by the time I picked her up on that exact day!   She has found some new series she enjoys and is branching out into other areas as well.  So, with all this being said, today she made me so happy... we had to leave school early so she didn't have time to get new books.  She was disappointed.  So on the way to our dr. appt she says "Mom can we go to a bookstore and get me some books?  I need some that are harder, longer, and that will last me more than one day!"  I said " well I don't have any money right now" and she said "well I have the money Pawpaw gave me two weeks ago".  I know this doesn't seem like a big deal, but in this day and age for kids to want to spend their own money on books and not on toys, nintendo games, junk food, cell phones, etc is just about one of the best things in the world to me! Then as soon as she said it, Peyton said "yeah, me too".  Oh my goodness, the Lord knew that would make my day and put those words on their little tongues!  I mean, an hour in a bookstore just browsing, looking through books and especially sharing the love with my kids...well that is my equivalent to 6 flags!  I just beamed!  :)  So after we were finished at the doctor we  spent the next hour looking for books that they would love and even teaching the kids how to ask for help in a bookstore when they were looking for a certain topic.  What a wonderful afternoon!  Jaedyn is just like  me, she picked up about 12 books and wanted them all SO badly!  She had to sit for about 10 minutes and weed  down and evaluate her final purchases. Only to finished by asking me if I would get the others for her for Christmas so she could read them or ask when we could come back to get them... I am so happy that she loves reading as much as I do (maybe more) and that we are teaching Peyton to do the same.  He is doing so well in reading even though he doesn't "love" it as much but I think after today and seeing all her excitement at how awesome books can be, he  might just come over to our side.  He got 4 books of his own and found others to come back for later!  Jaedyn didn't get out of the parking lot before she was reading one already.  She read all the way home. I am so overjoyed she has found her love for reading all over again.  I am so lucky that my dad always had his head buried in some sort of reading material and shared so many books with me that I caught the bug for it as well.  I am also so lucky that bug is now in its 3rd generation (actually 4th because my Nannie devoured books as much as my dad).  So just thought I would share what absolutely made my day!  Had to share a pic of Jaedyn and her new books.  She asked me to make her a bookmark out of the above picture as well!  BONUS!!!!
Have a blessed evening!
~Jennifer