Our home is typical of literature-loving people – we have stacks of books; shelves and racks of books, and thanks to our Charlotte Mason-inspired homeschooling, we love them all! 
There is nothing so life-enriching as reading good books!
My children love me reading aloud and they beg me to “keep on, Mom!” Our most special times are when we snuggle together and enjoy a good book. Even my eldest who has read the book many years before comes and lies with us as I read a chapter aloud each night before their bedtime. And every night, I have to tell my middle schooler to switch off her lamp and stop reading long after her bedtime.
I have written several times about my youngest emerging reader who really works hard to learn to read, and who amazes me with her dedication to reading!
And I wish to devote this post to her:
“You have heard me read stories aloud before you were born and you have loved stories from the start. You were just a toddler and pulled me down to the carpet or cushion with the book we’re reading and reminded me to read together with you – every – day. Hardly a school day has gone by where we haven’t read together. We have read picture books, faerie tales, nursery rhymes, classic tales, 3D and pop-up books, legends and fables, non-fiction books and look-for-the hidden-thing-books …
We all marvel at your devotion to reading. You read slowly, guessing, looking at the pictures for clues, and with toe-curling frustration, you get stuck and need our help. For months and months you have told us that you love to read and I can see that you are nearly there!
You just need a few more months practice or maybe an easy-to-read-on-your-own book, and you’ll be reading on your own!
And a whole new world will open up to you! Magical kingdoms, mysteries and surprises, noblemen and heroes, ideas and images, places and people, countries and creatures, thoughts and concepts that will transport you out of your room and into another realm. Oh, what wonder lies out there in the world of living books.
Just this week you dictated your first creative story to me. You are busy reading “The Sword in the Tree” by Clyde Robert Bulla and you love the Medieval themes, the suspense and the mystery. Even though it is a “boy’s story”, you were hooked! And it has filled your mind and imagination with Medieval ideas. Now, you have your very own first story, The Knight’s Tale. I love the clip art pictures and that pretty font you chose, and how you floated away on a high with your story to show everyone.
Such joy!
May your reading grow and flow. May books of wonder and delight enrich your life! May your growing vocabulary continue to amaze adult listeners as you use words you read and heard. May you grow in character, inspired by those who shared their lives in autobiographies and true-life stories. May your own shelves one day be filled with Living Books.
Above all, may you know the Lord, revealed in His Word. He is the best Word to read. The Living Word.
All my Love,
From your literature-loving, book-sharing, reading-aloud-with-funny-accents-mom!
I am sharing this post on the Charlotte Mason Carnival hosted by Amy at Fisher Academy.
Blessings, Nadene
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Hi,
I found your blog through the Charlotte Mason Carnival. I really enjoyed this post.
I am looking into Charlotte Mason and have been checking out blogs to learn more. I plan to stop by again to read more posts. And I am subscribing to your email.
Blessings
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Really lovely post! We have just started reading The Sword in the Tree, too and it’s well liked here, too.
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Hi Nadene, isn’t it great when I children are begging for more to be read to them. My children do that all the time. What’s so amazing though is thatI have done gotten so involved in the book too that if we have time I’m wanting to keep going also. That’s what living books do to all of us. They capture us and take us to that other land, where ever it may be in the book we are reading.
It’s great that your daughter is venturing out and reading on her own.
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I love it! My children all beg to be read to at times. The older ones are getting harder to please now, but my oldest is a voracious reader in her own right; and my second child enjoys reading when he has to sit still long enough to do such a non active task. 🙂 My two little ones still soak up what I’m reading with great enjoyment, and they are my emergent readers now, longing for the day that they can pick up anything and read it for themselves.
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What a beautiful post ~ and what an amazing gift we give our children by reading them quality living books! It is a dream come true for me to have my children BEG me to keep reading. Your daughter sounds like she is in love!
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