Should You Force Your Child to Read Over the Summer?
So I decided to take a stand against all that frenzy and just plop down. Every night, the minute I felt like the dinner routine was contained and homework was mainly done, I slid off to the couch with a book. It always took them a few minutes to catch on. Hey, where's mom? Why isn't mom here? Dad, what did you do with mom? Once they found me (those little homing pigeons), they found me reading and deeply enjoying it. Some almighty force stopped Mom in her tracks and they wanted to know what that force was. After a few nights of this, my oldest started to join me on the couch. We huddled under the blanket together and touched toes and read, me with my grown-up book and him with his just-starting-out book. He would tell me what page he was on and ask me mine. My progress was always two pages behind his, even if it wasn't. His little face glowed with satisfaction.