Library

haven't gotten to this yet, it's been in the works for awhile . . . and I'm sitting here, on a lazy Sunday morning, thinking of nothing else to post, this might be a good time!

As mentioned before, there are some really amazing blogs out there; while mine is pretty much a picture journal of our latest happenings, there are many blogs that are uber creative and inspiring! One of my favs, is inchmark.squarspace - the link is listed on the right of my blog under Amazing Things. The writer of this blog suggested a book, The Read-Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease. My copy is the 6th edition of this book and was first written in 1979. The first half of the book goes over the IMPORTANCE of reading aloud to your kids, not just when they are young, but through middle and high school! I did not realize this! The second half of the book is suggested reading material for your munchkins in any stage of their life! The whole book is invaluable! Really great! So I decided to introduce my kids to the library . . .

I grew up in libraries, my grandmother, my Nana, was the head of the Scottsdale Public Library, my sister, cousin and I volunteered numerous hours there. We also were always enrolled in any library reading program, it was part of my upbringing, part of my life. After college, I stopped going and I don't know why I never thought to bring my kids before discovering this book. The library is great! It is cool, it doesn't cost any money, the kids get to pick out whatever they want, there are places to sit, look and read books, and it also teaches them how to enjoy something that is not loud or exciting, but can still be fun! So now every week, we go to the library, the kids get to pick two books each and I choose two from the suggested reading material by Mr. Trelease. So they each have three books, we take them home, read them during the week, rate them, and return them to get more. It's really so much fun.

Here are some pictures of our first visit to the library, the kids each have their own card, which they signed and they are responsible for checking out their books and returning them themselves also. They feel good, they have so much responsibility and we have some great time reading together.