Reading
She sits on the chair in her Sunday best. The chaos around her is the rest of us rushing to get ready for church services on this Easter Sunday. She is oblivious to the chaos, however, as she quietly reads her book.
The book was a gift from the Easter Bunny and it’s a chapter book about Fancy Nancy and some mysteries. Swee’Pea has yet to put it down. As we leave for church she implores me to allow her to bring the book along. While we want her to start listening to the service more, I acquiesce and allow her to bring it along knowing there will be time to kill before mass.
She reads it in the car to church and on the way home. As I prepare lunch she is fervently bent over the book and I announce that lunch is almost ready and that she should find a good spot to stop reading. She tells me, with a proud smile, that she has only two more pages. Lunch is ready but I tell her that I have a bit more to do before lunch is served. She smiles and buries her head into her book for the final push while I wander around the kitchen pretending I have things to do.
With a flourish, she is finished. She closes the book and approaches the table. “I’m done, Daddy” she says. And she was. Thirteen chapters in half a day at six years old. I’m amazed at how big she is getting and I smile at her and tell her how proud I am of her.
Then we sit down for egg salad sandwiches and she tells me about the book. I hope it’s the first of many book reports.
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That’s awesome. My niece is 7 and loves reading. Can I ask what book it was, as she loves Fancy Nancy and chapter books.
Comment by Rachel — April 10, 2012 @ 1:59 am
I love this so much! She reminds me of me as a child. I would get so absorbed in a book I would take my little barbie street lamp to bed with me just so I could read more…until my Mom caught me, of course.
It brings me such great joy when my girls sit down with a pile of books. They can’t read on their own yet, but when they do I only hope they will discover the joy I feel in diving into another world through the pages of a good book. A smart and determined girl you have there. Thanks for sharing.
Comment by Katrina Jackson — April 10, 2012 @ 5:21 am
The sign of a great dad: letting her finish those “two more pages.”
She’ll always remember that you let her finish her book; I still wait until I get to the end of a chapter before I get up to get dressed, before I go to the table for dinner, before I start working for the day…
Reading, books – they are such gifts that open new worlds to you – I’m so happy you’re letting her stay in that world for a few extra minutes, when she can…
Comment by krys72599 — April 10, 2012 @ 6:43 am
You are such a great dad : “…I wander around the kitchen pretending I have things to do.”!!! And it’s so wonderful that she’s a committed reader!
Comment by Aina — April 11, 2012 @ 9:36 am
Her mother was an avid reader too. I remember the summer before third grade when Andrea received a prize from the library for reading the most books. We would go to the library for books and Andrea would choose two or three. I would just fill up the grocery bag and off we would go.
Comment by Sue Anselmi — April 11, 2012 @ 1:27 pm