JJ read his first book to me last night, ‘The Farm’. It was very exciting that he put his finger on the words and read the words to me. Then I had to read it to him and he read it to me yet again a few times. Woo wooo… It’s his first foray into the exciting world of books and print when it’s not someone reading to him. I do acknowledge he is doing this from memory but I guess that’s how we all start reading.
I don’t really remember the process of learning to read but I do remember in grade 1, forming sentences out of words printed on cardboard. I must have embraced the reading thing because I remember the smell of bookshops whenever we used to visit Adelaide and I knew that these bookshops held all sorts of different worlds and new ideas within the books they contained. I also used to look forward to when I’d ordered new books through school. When they finally arrived (it took so long) I couldn’t wait to open them up and read them.
These days buying a brand new book is a luxury so I get my fix from the library but the library just doesn’t have that lovely new book smell of bookshops.
Sooner rather than later JJ will be reading whole sentences to me because he can actually read the words. Maybe he can start reading me bedtime stories.
I LOVE IT! Let’s start that book collection!