March 28, 2011

what shall we read next?

Reading has always been one of my favourite things to do, but lately it seems my pleasure reading has been replaced with journal articles for school and toddler storybooks. Both of these actually make me quite happy, but somedays I really miss having a good book on the go. Perhaps when my course finishes next week, my maternity leave begins (also next week), I might rediscover this ever-precious personal reading time, but I guess we'll see.

In the meantime, I'm thrilled that Lady M has discovered the vast world of literature. Up until a couple months ago she enjoyed stories, but now she is just devouring them and can't seem to get enough. We sit and read a pile of books at a time, and I love seeing her get into the story and process both the pictures and the text.

One of the latest stories in our rotation has been "Pajama Time" by Sandra Boynton. Now, I'm sure every parent out there has at least one - if not ten - Boynton books on their shelves because her stories are wonderful. They read like little songs, and I think I have as much fun reading them as Lady M does listening to them. They're sweet, fun and the illustrations are great. What more could you ask for?



The other stories I'm pleased to say are in the current selection list are a couple of the Little Miss & Mr books - you remember them, of course. Who could forget the classic adventures of Little Miss Sunshine, or Mr Noisy? I LOVED these books when I was younger, and when I was in England several years ago I restarted my collection. I was at a bookstore in London and they had them on sale, and I can distinctly remember thinking, "someday I'll have kids I can read these to", so I purchased several from the series. Now here I am, 8 years later, with a sweet little tyke who is hanging on their every word.

Currently we are reading Mr. Funny and Little Miss Naughty. Mr Funny has encouraged us to learn several new funny faces, which I'm told she is now using to help cheer up the younger children at daycare - that's my girl! And we're learning important lessons with Little Miss Naughty about how to treat people with kindness and respect, all the while giggling our way through the pictures and words.

My favourite part of all her story time though, is that she is now "reading" the story back to herself, or to Cal & I. She's remembering so many parts of the story, and will retell it based on the pictures she sees as she flips back through the pages. Its so exciting to see her relating to books in this way, and to see her storytelling and recall abilities emerge.

So although my own reading adventures may be a bit slowed right now, I'm more than happy to dive back into some of my favourite children's books, along with lots of new ones with my little Lady M. Plus, whenever we are reading stories, the baby on its way tends to kick like crazy, so I think I'm going to have another little reader on my hands in a very short time, and I can't wait to share more and more stories with both my munchkins over the years to come.