When I was a kid, I used every possible moment to read. At school, I hid my book behind my desk and read while pretending to pay attention in class. At night, I read late into the night with a flashlight under the covers. Nowadays, it’s hard for kids to find the time to read.
Modern seating arrangements and table-style desks leave kids no room to hide their reading addiction. Some schools offer Sustained Silent Reading time, but even the most generous don’t allow more than thirty minutes. At night, kids try to read but are often too exhausted by the extracurricular activities and homework, after a long day of school, to get more than a paltry forty-five minutes of reading. Most kids we know don’t even get that much daily reading time.
So, when Alex begged for more time to read his current favorite books, The Spiderwick Chronicles, how could I deny him the glorious, gluttonous, uninterrupted hours of reading time?
I couldn’t deny him the pleasure of endless time immersed in a fantastical world where everything is possible. Do you remember what it was like to believe in magic?
In our homeschool world, reading is magic.
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“At night, kids try to read but are often too exhausted by the extracurricular activities and homework, after a long day of school, to get more than a paltry forty-five minutes of reading”.
It’s always such a rush and with siblings around the distractions are make it worse.
My daughter has just reached the stage where she wants to stretch out and read for hours. Its so wonderful. And what can I do, but settle down beside her and read too!!!
Oh, yes, I remember those days of reading under my desk, too. My teachers rarely made me stop!
This is one of the greatest benefits to homeschooling our son. He has become such a reader. He loves the library, and books, in a way that his schooled friends don’t. I have loved those days where I can say to him, “Yes, by all means, go ahead and read until you want to stop.”
Oh, I love it. Our little ones are 3 and 2, so we’re not at this stage. It’s so neat to see what lies ahead!