Read It!

Have I mentioned Jack is obsessed with books? More so than either of my other boys at this age, Jack wants to be read to. We have books all over the house and recently just transferred some books from the big boys' room into his room and he LOVES his little collection! "Read books!" is one of the first things on his mind when he wakes up in the morning. He will bring book after book onto my lap and does not take kindly to quitting time.

Although he much prefers to be read to, he will "read" them alone if desperate enough. I often find him on the floor in front of his bookshelf, half buried in books, turning pages and reciting his favorite short phrases from them.

Now that we have company here, Jack has found a whole new group of people to read to him. He is constantly grabbing books and running for his favorite readers, yelling, "Read it!" while climbing onto their lap, invited or no.

Last night, he must have been unable to locate a book because he brought his jammies to his aunt, climbed up on her, and demanded, "Read it!" She did her best...

Fun With Dick and Jane

My biggest boy seems to get noticeable smarter every day. Not knowing many (or any, for that matter) kids older than Ben, I don't have anyone to compare him to, but I am pretty impressed with him.

One area he has just improved remarkably in is his reading ability. Although I think he took to it rather quickly, it still seems like not long ago we were struggling together through the simplest of books; he can now read completely on his own and will even read to his little brothers.

Part of his daily homework (from me, not from school) is to read a few chapters from a non-school related book. With his increasing ability to read quickly and comprehend at the same time, plus the promise of some sort of small reward for finishing a book, he is reading a lot now. I have him read to me while I make dinner. He reads to his brothers while he is playing "teacher" and they are the "students." He cracks up when something funny happens in the story and always chooses to read one more chapter if something exciting is left unresolved from the previous one.

For him, it is an issue of confidence: the more he reads, the better he gets, the better he knows he is, the less supervision he needs from me, the faster he can read/comprehend, the more interesting books he can read, the more exciting and fulfilling it becomes. He's blowing through all the chapter books I've gotten him.

His reward for finishing his last book, my old, battered Fun With Dick and Jane, was to go see Rango at the theater. I love taking Ben to the movies. It is just so rewarding: he literally sits on the edge of his seat, laughing and asking questions and repeating funny lines. While it was not my favorite movie, he loved it. "Mom, this movie is so perfect for me! It has all my favorites: lizards, snakes, bats, hawks... all it needs is a dragon!"

I realize that all kids learn how to read, and all parents, past and present, are impressed and proud of their own children's progress, but I just can't help thinking he is something special! Keep up the good work, my biggest!

Dragons 101

The first thing you need to know about dragons is what is and is not an appropriate name for this fierce creature.  

I discovered this a few days ago when Ben insisted that I be a dragon with  him.  Of course, the first thing we had to do in order to become a dragon was name ourselves.  Not feeling terribly dragonish and distracted by something else, I was not coming up with much that he found satisfactory.  When I finally asked if I could just be "Mommy Dragon," he sighed and said, "Mom, let me teach you something about dragons.  You have to have a scary or tough name if you want to be a dragon.  'Mommy Dragon' isn't scary.  It has to be something like Horny Face or Volcano Fire or Lava Spikes or Fire Breath!"  He just rattled off these names and more without much pause in between, as if he learned these in Dragon 101 and had them memorized for time such as this when a dragon amateur needed some schooling.  

We finally decided on "Dragabelle" even though that is not very scary because it is a name from one of his favorite Dragon books and is actually a pretty good name for a mommy dragon who isn't really all that scary... unless her little boy dragons are misbehaving, that is.  

These are pictures of Dragabelle and her twin sons: Dragonix and Dragonux.  As you can see, she knows how to take care of business!

To help us along with our dragon learning, we read (and re-read... and re-read... and re-read...) a few favorite dragon books.  

The Woodland Folk in Dragonland, by Tony Wolf, is probably our favorite and is where one can read about Dragabelle and her little rascals.  The pictures are amazing and my boys love it!

This book: How to Train Your Dragon Mix & Match, is so much fun!  The pages are divided into three sections so you can create your own species of dragons.  The boys love this book!

We also love My Father's Dragon (and the other two in the series) by Ruth Stiles Gannet, about a boy who rescues a baby dragon.  It is a fun and silly tale and also has cute pictures in it, but it is a chapter book, so not really for the littlest of listeners.