They go to school. I go to work. James and Eliana spend some "just us" time together and after rushing everyone around to after school activities, feeding everyone dinner, showering and brushing teeth, it's finally time settle down for the night. This is probably my favorite time of day because I get to do the one thing I don't get to do during the day - spend time with my kids.
Like most kids, our kids LOVE bedtime books. The best part is that I LOVE reading them. I love to have their full attention while they are learning something new. I love to watch their faces light up when something unexpected happens. I love to hear them giggle when we find a book that's really funny. I see it as an adventure we take together because I don't always read the book before I share it with them. Sometimes it's poorly written or boring (small risk I'm willing to take), but we usually get something out of every book we read.
It's not unusual for us to spend a half-hour reading bedtime books, and some nights we spend up to an hour. Tonight, we had one of those nights. I made a spur of the moment decision that we should start doing math and reading flashcards for just a few minutes each night to see how they improve over the next few weeks (more on that in a few weeks perhaps), and we were having so much fun that bedtime books were more of an afterthought. We did finally start reading and we only had time for 2 books tonight. We picked these two:
We enjoyed both books, but Oscar and the Frog did seem to pique their interest more. They all love science, and it's all about how living things grow. The book ends with the question 'Oscar thinks growing is great! Do you think so, too?'. Right away, Jameson chimed in with "No!". Truman was my most surprising response with, "I don't want to leave Mom and Dad!". Thank goodness you're young because Mom and Dad aren't ready for that either, buddy. In the mean time, I'm trying to soak it all in, and Mom will keep doing bedtime books as long as they'll let me.
