Literary Hopes

It has baffled me that my kids are not voracious readers.

We did all the recommended things. We read to them since they emerged from the womb. Our home is filled with books of all types and they see the adults in the family inhale the written word as if oxygen.

Asperger’s makes reading increasingly difficult for Beernut. Grasping inferences, predicting character behaviours, and anticipating outcomes are outside of his realm. And he has grown to despise reading. The only saving grace for him has been our move to a school that has an amazing reading program facilitated by an amazing reading specialist. He has made tremendous progress…and even admits to enjoying reading. Sometimes.

And Poppyseed…my sweet Poppyseed. One-and-a-half years of remedial reading has brought her up to grade level. More importantly, in the past few weeks, the switch has been thrown. She is reading whenever she can steal a few moments. For the first time, she stayed up reading to finish a book.

She was on chapter two when I said “lights out.”

Remembering my own childhood obsession with books, I didn’t have the heart to enforce bedtime. “Don’t stay up too late” was the most I could muster while hiding the glee I felt. Finally!

Though she loves being an independent reader, she still insists on certain books being read to her. “Mommy books,” she calls them. You know the ones. All-of-a-Kind-Family for now. The Little House series next. And then…Anne. My most favourite character of all time. How long I have waited to introduce my daughter to Anne.

What childhood character do you hope to share with your child (son, daughter, niece, nephew, etc.)?