For the Love of Books

     In the last year as the boys have grown and nap time has moved back, disappeared mostly, the range of activities and general "business" has grown.  It is nice to have that flexibility to go and do, but on occasion I miss the slower paced days where we only planned to be out for a couple hours.  During those times, when the boys were younger we read much more.  The boys love to read.  My all time favorite thing to do with them is to grab a stack of books, sit in a rocking chair with them on my laps, snuggle up and dig into some good books.  Insistent that this time doesn't dissipate, that it just looks different, I started to make some great changes I have loved.
     We made reading an activity to go and do. We go to the library every week or two, and pick out books, lots and lots of books(they even have a rocking chair). The boys participated in the summer reading challenge, and picked a prize after reading a certain amount of time and coloring the corresponding pictures.  Having all of those books somehow makes us sit down, take it slow and read a little.  We could not possibly return them unread!  We keep them in a separate basket in the living room so they do not get lost. Until recently it was the only room in the house that didn't have books (which I believe has been a great promoter in general to read). On our most recent trip to the library, I pulled out a book for Brekkon to look at quietly so I could choose some for the house.  As I am looking I hear him in his very best library voice saying "mmmm-uuuu-dddd dddd-oooo-ggg."  He then jumps quickly to his feet and shouts "MUD DOG?" He then proceeds to laugh, running around the library yelling "mud dog, and then the clean little dog rolled around in the mud and got all dirty" during all of this of course I am chasing him calling out "Library Voice Brekkon...LIBRARY VOICE PLEASE".  In retrospect it was funny, but at the time....embarrassing!

     Another change we recently made is  instead of taking toys in the car, that rarely come out, we take books and sometimes magazines.  They fit nicely into the back pocket seat in front of them and they can pick one out when they get in (it gives us more room for things like tap shoes and in-n-out hats).  Brekkon has books in his pocket that he has memorized mostly.  Hearing their little voices read to me in the car is just so, so sweet.

    I have been trying to place books where they are easy to get to and put away and where the boys have a fun place to read them.  I didn't know how wonderful Tukker's reading nook would really be for him.  We often find him laying in his little hideout reading or browsing books on his own.

Here is a picture of most of our book places we have around the house for the boys.

Here's hoping that our continual evolution of our reading time will keep there love of books alive for a lifetime!

THE END

Fins. Thrust. Countdown....Blast Off

We finally have gotten everything put away from our flood, with that I had lots of boxes that were now not needed...well not for me.  The boys immediately climbed in to use them as rockets, cars, garages and any thing else their little minds could imagine.

A couple days later we were at the library and I found a book on display titled Not a Box. It was wonderful and full of imagination, so we checked it out.  Tukker asked if we could build a rocket out of the boxes. That sounded like fun.

Little did I know what a wonderful project it would turn into for them. They ended up seeing shapes in negative space that needed to be filled, learned a new shape, did an impromptu science experiment, and researched the design of a rocket online! Tukker and Brekkon both contributed more than I thought they would be able to on the ideas of the construction of it.  They helped tape pieces together and also decided on how to attach pieces to the ship. While doing the outside of the rocket Tukker told me that some of the box was not steady and he would reinforce it again with tape once he got inside the rocket. Good thing because I couldn't see myself getting in there!

The little details mattered.  Brekkon wanted circle windows and Tukker wanted square ones, and it nearly became a screaming disaster.  I quickly suggested they look at pictures online to see what real rocket windows where shaped like(Brekkon also told Tukker "you will see you are wrong when we look it up on google").  From there came the ideas of adding fins to the rocket, and what shape are they exactly? A Parallelogram!! This was a new shape for them and Tukker was fascinated that he could make one out of 2 triangle pieces from the top that we had cut out. He and Brekkon assembled those on their own. Tukker's last request was to have fire come out of the bottom so the rocket could fly, Brekkon agree that this was a wonderful idea. Hmm ..The alternative that I came up with was fun.  We laid a garden hose out in the yard and turned it on full blast, they were able to see it thrust backwards when the force of water came out...just like a rocket when it takes off.  

Currently they are astronauts, flying around the house exclaiming, "we have no gravity....AHHHHHH!"

Oh and I nearly forgot, Tukker's life long dream to be the garbage man has now been thrown out(pun intended) ... he will now be an astronaut! All of this from a couple of boxes...