Books over all

[chargirlgenius]

Henry is deep into that point of childhood where we're constantly telling him "put that book down and...". Tonight was no different. I called him into the kitchen to look at something, and he sloooowly dragged himself in, nose buried in his book. I told him to put it down. No response. Finally, I grabbed the book out of his hands, put it on the

Comments

[sarahbellem]

God, I remember those days... You couldn't pry me out of a book from the ages of 5 to 15. My mother used to get *SO MAD* trying to get me to clean my room on weekends because I would start to clean and then things would go quiet and then she'd come in and find me buried in a book. I finally figured out that if I went to the "bathroom" with my book, she'd leave me alone longer. Spent a lot of time locked in my bathroom, sitting on the floor, reading. ;)

[anathelen]

Are you me?!

[chargirlgenius]

Do you ever wonder if any of the "so mad" also included a little bit of reverse psychology to encourage you to see reading as a forbidden and luscious pleasure? :-)

[alphasarah]

every. day. of. my. life.

We have a rule: no reading until you're completely ready for school.

The first privilege lost is reading at bedtime. We very rarely have to follow through.

I frequently have to say "we're not reading now, we're leaving." And usually 50% of the family members who had their faces buried in a readable thing hear me. It's a toss-up as to which one of them it is, though. ;^)

[chargirlgenius]

We've instituted a couple of levels of reading loss at bedtime, for use with different levels of rule breaking. First, if they don't meet the 5 minute timer for jammies, they lose me reading them stories, but can still read for 10 minutes in bed on their own. Outright disobedience loses all of it. :-)

[reasdream]

Have you gotten to "Just let me finish this chapter" at bedtime? that lasted for ages. Now I say it to myself...

[chargirlgenius]

Chapter, page, etc. The less he argues, the more I suspect that he's hiding a flashlight.

[anathelen]

I thought I was being sooooo clever when I was 8. Your posts about your kids have made me realize I wasn't all that clever or sneaky about things like hiding flashlights or begging to keep my nightlight for several years longer than I needed it so I could read by its light at the foot of the bed and my parents probably knew exactly what I was up to :).

[chargirlgenius]

They were probably congratulating themselves on making reading something that you would sneak to do. :-)

[green_martha]

The era just started here... We struggle to make Heimlich put down his book for dinner, and he's not even correctly *talking* yet... :)
I used to close my door and pretend to be doing my homework, put my book on top of it, and hide it quickly when my Mom came in...

[stringmonkey]

"that point of childhood where we're constantly telling him 'put that book down and...'"

You mean it ends?

[chargirlgenius]

I suppose that it *is* most of it... :-) Actually, he's been in it for some time. And I think it's one of those things you enter but don't exit.

I just hadn't tried the "book or corner" thing before. Heh. One more tool in my arsenal.