Back when Peanut was just a little baking nut, I shared my hopes for being a Reading Mom. I confessed that I was worried about having enough time for my favorite hobby, and shared some of the reasons why I think it’s important that I keep reading no matter how busy life as a mom gets. And one of those reasons was “to set an example.” I explained:
This might be even more important. I want my baby to grow up surrounded by books, and to live in a world where stories and reading are a part of life. That’s the childhood that my own mom gave me, and that’s what I want to give my little girl. Along those lines, it’s going to be important for me both to read WITH the kiddo every day (stay tuned for our favorite bedtime stories to be featured on the blog), and for the kid to see ME reading to myself – to see that I make reading a priority in my own life. Whether that’s sitting with a book in my lap while I keep an eye on my offspring on the playground a few years from now, or picking out my own book when we motor by the library for story hour, I want the kid to understand that books can enrich her life – and what better way to get that message across than to embody it?
Yes, one of the most important reasons I wanted to make reading a priority even during long days of raising a baby was that I wanted Peanut to grow up with books. I wanted books to be part of her “normal” – and that included both being read to and reading herself, and seeing me read too. My hope was that she would grow to love books and become an avid reader herself.
Two years in… mission accomplished?
Well, not quite yet. Peanut can’t read yet (although sometimes I have my suspicions that she actually can and is just keeping it to herself) but so far, so good. The kid definitely loves books. No… she adores them. And while I’m not quite ready to declare “success!” or claim that Peanut is a lifelong reader – she is, after all, only two – I think we’re off to an excellent start. Peanut will happily sit quietly with a book. She knows her favorites by heart and will entertain herself by “reading” out loud. (Her teachers tell me she does this at school, too.) She also loves being read to, of course, and will sit for hours snuggling in a lap listening to stories, if she can convince anyone to go on that long. How am I making this happen?
- By being very, very lucky. Of course I’m doing everything I can to foster a love of books and reading in Peanut. Of course I am. But I think that she has a certain innate love of books and reading (her genes, perhaps?) and a large part of any “success” we’ve had in getting her to enjoy books has been pure luck. It’s the old “nature v. nurture” debate. I’m doing the best I can to nurture her love of reading, but a big part of it is just her nature. And I just try to stay out of her way!
- By patiently reading as much as she wants (within reason). Peanut goes on jags like any toddler. In her case, she goes on book jags where we have to read the same book umpteen times in a row. Last week, it was Olivia Goes to Venice (which is hilarious, by the way). This week, it’s Fancy Nancy: Halloween or Bust! If Peanut is into a story and requesting that it be read over and over, I do my best to oblige, even if that means reading the same thirty pages eleven times straight. I don’t sigh, act put-upon, read more quickly or neglect to do the voices after the tenth read-through. I don’t want Peanut to ever get the impression that reading to her is a chore for me. It’s not – it’s pure joy. (Even if sometimes I wouldn’t mind diversifying… we have a lot of good books.) Of course, I did say this is within reason. If it’s a ploy to avoid bedtime… well, Peanut, I wasn’t born yesterday.
- By respecting her desire to read to herself. Sometimes Peanut likes to sit quietly with a book and get in some alone time. I get that, because I do the same thing. (Nana told me that when she was watching Peanut, Peanut would occasionally take a book into her play yard and sit there for a few minutes to get away – haha!) If Peanut seems to want to read to herself, I don’t push in (although I will occasionally offer to read the book she’s perusing). I want her to enjoy reading independently and let her direct herself. (Now that she usually can do that without ripping pages, that is.)
- By reading in front of her. In my “Reading Mom” post I said I wanted Peanut to see me making books and reading a priority in my life too. Now that she is old enough to play independently, I try to do that when I can. It’s harder than I expected it to be, though; she’s so cute that I just want to sit and watch her play, not look down at my book! But I have been trying, more and more, to sit with a book in the playroom while Peanut plays with her farm or tackles her stuffed animals. (Or sits with a book of her own.) I don’t know if she’s catching on yet to me making reading a priority, but I’m laying the groundwork.
- By cycling in seasonal books. We read fall books in the fall, Christmas books at Christmas, winter books in the winter… Mixing in seasonal books keeps Peanut’s shelves fresh and interesting, and also shows her that books can be something that contributes to the fun of a season or holiday. Reading special books at special times has become part of our family tradition – as I knew it would – and I hope she looks forward to Christmas books all year the way I did when I was a kid.
We have a long way to go but I am already imagining Peanut as a ten-year-old, curled up with Anne of Green Gables (maybe for the first time) or telling me which of the Little Women she is. I think that despite all of my plans for fostering a love of reading in Peanut – and as much as I work on that goal every day – a major part of her current bookish propensities is simply that that’s who she is. I am still, of course, trying to encourage her love of books, but part of me wonders if she’d be a bookish baby no matter what I did or didn’t do. What I didn’t take into account when I was sharing my goals for reading as a mom (and reading to my baby) was her personality. Now, two years in, I’m balancing my continuing efforts to encourage her to read with thanking my lucky stars that she seems to be a born reader – with a very lucky mom.
Are you a born reader, or did someone encourage you… or both?
covered in flour 
This is wonderful. I think I’m a little of both. My parents are book worms. Our house was filled with books & I watched them reading every night growing up. They read to me, I loved story time, but as I got older all my friends were into Sweet Valley High and The Baby Sitters Club and I didn’t like those despite being gifted loads of them. I didn’t like most “school books”. I found out I liked horror! I whipped through RL Stine Fear Street & Christoper Pike books. My Mom was thrilled to see me eager to read & would let me pick out 3 or 4 books each time we went to Media Play. So for me I’d say it’s a bit of both but I needed to discover which genre I liked. My taste is broader now but I just wasn’t into the books I was being given(though I did check Little Woman out of the elementary school library a few times;) )
My brother was the same way. He was a reluctant reader until about fourth grade. My mom tried everything to get him to read and it wasn’t until she found him some Star Wars books that he really got hooked. He also liked R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps books! I was the “born reader” out of the two of us – I’d read the back of a cereal box (and still do) if that was all that was around. I did read the Babysitters Club and the Sweet Valley books, but I was pretty indiscriminate in middle school – still, I loved Louisa May Alcott and L.M. Montgomery more. Today my brother and I are both avid readers, and my brother is actually a newspaper editor… so his initial disinclination to read obviously didn’t hurt him!
I read Star Wars in middle school…I was shocked at how much I liked it even though I’d grown up with the movies(in particular I loved Tales From Jabba’s Palace which I’m not even that embarrassed to admit, I wonder if your brother read that one too). Do remember the Baby-Sitter’s Club tv show from HBO? I really liked it and I had the Christmas episode on VHS! In a way I want to read those books now just because they’re interesting as a pop culture thing.
I had no idea there was a Baby-Sitters Club show! We had HBO for a time when I was a kid but I was never a big one for TV and I don’t think I ever watched it, other than the occasional movie. And I haven’t had it for years. Now I want to see if it’s on DVD or Blu-Ray. I liked the books a lot when I was younger, but forgot about them for years and am only now beginning to get interested again, for nostalgia reasons and because of the pop culture factor you mentioned.
Oh, yes, and I read the Star Wars books in middle and high school too – everything from George Lucas’s book versions of the original three to the “Jedi Academy” books about Han and Leia’s kids. Total brain candy, but so much fun. I still love the Star Wars universe. Never had any interest in Star Trek, but love all things Star Wars!
I enjoyed the newer Star Trek movies and a couple old ones but I’m not a “Trekkie” or whatever! by any means. Star Wars is more universal, I just love it.
I believe Baby-Sitter’s Club is on Netflix streaming and youtube but the yt quality may not be so good.
Hope you get a chance to see it, it’s corny goodness.
Sweet, thanks for the tip! I’m going to look for it on Netflix!
I love this so much. I hope any future kid of mine loves reading as much as yours does. 🙂
I hope so, too! What I am really starting to realize (and hopefully it comes across in the post) is that personality plays a huge role. I had all these grand plans to make Peanut into a reader and I’m still working on that, but if she does end up loving to read for her whole life, I think it will be good luck more than anything else!
I love this post!
I’ve been running an unofficial twin experiment, and what’s interesting is that one of my twins loves books much more than the other one. They’re both readers, but S. adores books the way I did as a kid. Her identical twin, M., goes through times when she reads heavily, but she will also go through periods of time when she doesn’t want to read. She’s equally interested in art, puzzles, games, etc, while S. will always choose a book over other activities.
I’ve often thought about what this “study” (let’s just ignore the incredibly small sample size and other issues!) says about the nurture/nature debate. I’m raising my daughters the same way–or at least I think I am–but they have other influences in their lives. We’ve separated our twins into different classrooms since they were three. Last year, in kindergarten, S’s teacher emphasized reading more than M’s teacher did, and S. became an independent reader before M. did. Now, because S. sees reading as one of her strengths, she gravitates to it more than she does to other activities, while M. does the opposite. It’ll be interesting to see whether these differences last into adulthood.
What an interesting mini-experiment! You’re probably right that S’s teacher emphasizing reading more than M’s had something to do with it. M may also be comparing herself to her sister, seeing that reading comes slightly easier to S, and thinking, “Guess I’ll do something else then.” I wonder?
I think a lot about the nature-or-nurture question (I have another post on the subject, “Are Readers Born or Made?”, from right around the time I was moving away from food blogging) and I don’t know that there’s an easy answer to it. I do give myself some credit for Peanut’s bookish enthusiasm – and I’ll bet M’s enjoyment of books, especially if it’s not as natural for her as it is for her sister, has a lot to do with you and the environment you’ve created for your girls. But I also think that your S and my Peanut probably have at least a little bit of “born reader” tendency already in them, and it’s up to us to encourage that facet of their personalities and help them to grow as readers (something I hope to do as well as I know you do).
I definitely am a born reader: I have been utterly fascinated by books as long as I can remember, but I didn’t see my parents read. They told me that they liked to read books when they were younger bit didn’t make it a priority once they had children. Fortunately we had a library in walking distance where I spent many, many hours. I suspect many people, including my parents, considered me weird for loving books so much.
When we were older my mom started to read again, she seems happier now.
I’m a born reader, too, and like you I grew up fascinated by books even though my parents didn’t read as much in front of me. I think that – like many people – they enjoyed reading but found it hard to make the time between full-time jobs, maintaining a house and raising kids. My mom has been reading much more since she retired and is now in a book club with her friends, and I know she’s thrilled to have time to read as much as she wants again!