We are a family of readers.  We love books!  If we’re in town and have a little time to burn, the first thing all four kids want to do is to go to the bookstore.  Ahhhh, that makes their PhD dad and their voracious reader mom pretty darned pleased.

This summer, the local yocal library offered a reading club to children, up to sixth grade.  I signed up all 3 of our youngest ones (the big girl was a bit put out that it didn’t involve her age-group, too – but, that didn’t stop her from reading!) and the two girls began in earnest, reading and creating their lists of read-books.  The son-man adamantly refused to participate — he’d still read, but no way was he going to be a part of the action. 

That is, until one day when his mom took them all to the library and was writing down the girls’ lists on their designated pages — when son-man came up and watched what I was doing … then quickly ran over to the bookshelves (way too young for his age-level) and started depositing books in my lap.

“Add this one, Mom, cause I just read it,” he said.

and this one.  and this one.  and this one.

I finally stopped him and told him that our quest was to check out books at or above his reading level so he could bring them home and read them at home.  So, he stopped.  And then ventured over to the history and social studies area, searching for encyclopedias and such (that are way over MY head) to check out to take home – on topics including everything from dinosaurs to pirates!

I can’t say that the kids read any more than they usually do – but, it was interesting to see how much they truly read.  I’m sure we only wrote down about 1/3 of what they read – because they’d forget to add completed books to their lists.  But, we have definitely planted the reading seed in our youngesters!