R is for Reading
The Crazy Hip Blog Mamas ask a question as part of their fifth writing collaboration…“What favorite books from your childhood do you plan to (or have already) introduced to your children?â€
I try to read daily to both my girls. Amelia loves Spot the Dog and lately has been bringing us Goodnight Moon from our big book basket in the den which is filled with board books. Caitlin has story time in bed every evening. We snuggle under the covers and share favorite books. I can’t think of a better way to end the day with her. She’s been known to prolong bedtime by pleading, “Read it one more time mama!” (We have a two time limit for reading or we’d be up until midnight.)
I have nearly all my childhood books thanks to my mom. I am seven years younger than my brother and I am even younger than my sisters. So, many of my books my mom bought new for me. She always wrote a note inside as well as the date.
Pictured here are several of my favorite childhood books. I’ll have to admit I can’t think of one overall favorite. Caitlin chooses a book each night from her bookcase and we have read a portion or all of these books numerous times. They are my actual childhood copies, except for The Little House. I had a hardback copy growing up and I’m not sure what happened to it, but I remember reading it over and over. There are so many more books I loved as a child…The Little House and Nancy Drew series, the Chronicles of Narnia, anything by Madeline L’Engle, A Little Princess and The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett…my list could go on and on. My maternal grandmother also gave me books each year for my birthday. I grew up in the country with not much to do smack dab in the middle of pasture and crop fields but I always loved to curl up with a good book.
One of my girlfriends from college has four children and we were e-mailing each other a few years back about Christmas and gift giving in general for children. She told me she and her husband feel like their kids can never have too many books or too many art supplies. A love for reading is something I hope to instill in both girls. Perhaps they will sit down and read my childhood books to their children some day.
