Summer Reading: The Joy of Frequent Library Trips

I mentioned a few weeks ago that N. has gotten excited about the Bernalillo Public Library System's summer reading program.

We are finding ourselves going to the library several times a week because they dole out 1 ten-hour reading card at a time to be filled out and turned in. N. has been reading between 20 and 30 hours a week now, and has been reading a variety of genres. Part of the reason is that we are not doing any major projects for the summer. And part of the reason is that each 10-hour card he turns in is entered into a drawing for a new techno-gadget of some kind. I-Pod? SPS? I don't remember--but something like that.

And I have expanded my reading as well.

Part of the reason is that when I am done with the UNM semester, I have time to read more for pleasure. And part of the reason is that I have discovered that the library has a summer reading program for adults as well! And the grand prize in the drawing is two round-trip tickets to anywhere Southwest Airlines flies. I read anyway. Might as well try for the trip.

So we are driving the eight miles to the library at least three times a week.

My philosophy for reading for my kids has always been simple. They should read real books that interest them and plenty of those! I eschew booklists, workbooks, vocabulary worksheets, phonics drills--or anything else that would convince them that reading is a means to some other end. Reading for readings sake! That's my motto.

So reading is not a "subject" in my house.

And yet everybody reads most of the time. We read for pleasure and information.

We read indoors, outdoors, sitting at the breakfast table, and sprawled out on the floor. And we read in the car (not the driver, of course), at the bookstore, at the library and under trees at the park. We read aloud to each other and silently. A dinner conversation often starts with, "By the way, I read today that..."

That big, expensive TV set? It gets used. For Netflix. Maybe once or twice a week.

It would be nice to win the drawing, of course...

But we'll read anyway.

We are a family of readers. A nice family.

The only problem is that I have trouble keeping the booklist up to date on this blog...