Books...

We have started reading chapter books around here...well, I read them aloud and we all love it!  I have been looking forward to reading out loud from long books since before I had babies.  For awhile now I haven't had the energy to read books to the kids at bedtime, so now we read in the mornings before school.  We all get cozy on the couch and while Elijah usually sticks close during the 3 or 4 chapters that I read each day, the girls end up wandering off and playing close by.  They just don't have the attention span to sit and listen for 45 minutes or so.  But, I know they listen in their own way and as long as they are not disruptive they can play nearby.  We have started with the Calendar Club Mysteries by Nancy Star (Please note, I did not pay $60 for the set of books.  I got three of them from Scholastic and the remainder I was able to buy used from thriftbooks.com).  They read quick and have pictures here and there which satisfy the still present need to "see" what the characters look like and what they are doing.  Plus, we have been having a great deal of fun discussing the stories and trying to figure out the mystery in each one.
Also, Elijah is bringing home pre-readers from his class that his teacher loans out.  He reads them to me, takes them back to school and brings home more.  I am amazed at how far he is coming and how well he is reading already. I know that I still have lots of picture book reading ahead of me and I don't mind, as there are wonderful ones that we all love,  But, I am excited to be starting on longer, more involved books.  I hope that the kids will see that there are never ending possibilities with books and that reading can go beyond a picture book.  Life long readers are my goal and I feel like we are well on our way to making that happen.