A Reading Family: Start ‘em Young

Over Labor Day weekend we tackled a job we’ve been putting off for years—transferring all our Hi-8 home videos to DVD. Not wanting to trust Costco with the only copy of my precious memories, we made VHS copies first. Can I tell you how compelling our home movies are? We couldn’t look away. For hours.

The kids hadn’t seen these videos so they were mesmerized seeing themselves grow up. I liked that the videos (mostly) showed how much fun we had and not how tired or cranky I sometimes felt.

And always, in the background—often in the foreground—were books.

I had baskets of chunky picture books and learn-to-read books in our living room and family room. The kids both had bookshelves in their bedrooms. We had a library bag set by the garage door ready to be swapped out for more books.

I’ve got video of me reading to my toddler while the baby bopped her head up and down and tried to reach the pages during tummy time. I’ve got video of my husband reading goodnight stories. I’ve even got a video of my 2 ½ year old “reading” her first book aloud: Have You Seen My Cat? by Eric Carle. (Which she pronounced Have You Seen My Tat?”—Did I tell you how cute these home videos are?!?)

Often we would read a book and then go put together a craft or play a game or create a mini-drama of what we had read. We have a really funny video of our rendition of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. And after reading Bunny Cakes by Rosemary Wells we made a most delicious Angel Surprise cake with raspberry fluff frosting. The kids did all the decorating while I filmed.

Ah, good books, good memories.

I’m so thankful for the authors and illustrators who were a part of my kids’ early years. These picture books set the stage for a lifetime of reading.