Our Family Journal

We are doing lots of reading and have found out about lots of programs that encourage kids to read by giving them free stuff if they read so many books. Both Emily and Matthew are really into it and turned in their Barnes and Noble sheets (the first of two allowed) on Friday. Emily picked a book with 20+ chapters and no pictures (The Report Card - I just read it this evening and it was pretty good if I may say so) and is about halfway through it 24 hours later. We will enjoy discussing it no doubt. Matthew got an early reader book called Biscuit Goes to School and has memorized it and read it to us about 4 times now (maybe more). He’s in the introductory phase of reading (mostly guessing and memorizing) but is very proud and excited. I’d be more convinced he actually knew what he was doing if he remembered words like “and” from one time to the next but regardless it’s a great step in that direction at his own initiative. We’ve been pretty hands-off given that he’ll be 6 soon and not yet in school officially. Didn’t want him to stand out too much. No doubt he’ll be reading as well as Emily does soon enough.

In any case, they’re signed up for lots of free programs at the library (our library is awesome) and Emily participated in a scavenger hunt this week (mostly learning to use the card catalog and the encyclopedia). As a result we have books on castles to read and she got a free Magic Tree House book for a prize (which she devoured within an hour or so of getting home). I wanted to share an excerpt from a poem they gave out as part of the registration for the summer program with you because it’s so cute. I think we’re going to have to borrow this book of poetry and read the whole thing!

The Gentleman Book Worm
By J. Patrick Lewis
(an excerpt)

There once was a Gentleman Bookworm
Ate his words with a fork and a spoon.
When friends crawled down
From Book End Town,
He offered them Goodnight, Moon.

He fed them The Wind in the Willows
And a page out of Charlotte’s Web.
They were eating bizarre
Where the Wild Things Are,
When one of the guestworms said,

“How sinfully rich and delicious!
Why should anyone bother to cook?
You’ve done it, dear boy!
Now sit down and enjoy
A bit of this poetry book!”

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 1st, 2006 at 9:51 pm, and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.