reading WITH kids...

If you've been following Renzo's blog, you know that he loves reading since young and I'm very glad that we've fostered a good reading habit at home from day one. Despite the fact that he could read English books independently now, we still enjoy reading together with him so much!

Usually Daddy is the one reading with him before bedtime. Of course for Chinese books, well, only Mummy can help, LOL... And from 9pm to 930pm, usually you will find him busy reading books in the room and he gets really upset if he's not allowed to read by lights off time (930pm or sometimes earlier), so he puts in efforts to finish his dinner, shower and tries to spare enough time for reading everyday.

Talking about Renzo's books, his kiasu mummy spent more than 1000 dollars on a set of Grolier children's books for him when he was barely 1 year old, which he only started reading 1 or 2 recently. But since then, I've not been buying a lot of books for him, maybe I am under better control because I thought I've spent more than enough. So a few months back, when we decided to migrate his books all to the bedroom for easier access, and get him to label his bookshelf, I realized that he really doesn't have a lot of books. He mentioned that he wants to finish all his assessment books in order to be clever, and I could only find less than 5 of those on his little bookshelf.

 

But I somehow like it this way. It's just like many parents believe kids do not need too many toys, I feel that they do not need too many books either, not all at one time I meant. So at least they could focus and finish reading before you get them new ones. Look at the your kids' bookselves at home, who dares to say your 3-7 years old have already finished reading at least 70% of their collection?

And by providing them with limited range of books, they also learn to treasure their books more, just like how they treasure their toys. This was how heartbroken Renzo was when he found out Rynus tore one page out of his book and threw that away. I bought him a new one though I was told by many that he needs to learn to cope with losses, but his reasoning was that he really wished to finish reading that exact same story. So you see, it's not that I am not willing to splurge on books, I just want to only buy for a good course rather than keep buying without knowing how much my kids will really enjoy reading.

So here are some of Renzo's great books I really love:

Thomas and Friends 

His all time favorite. He can read them again and again without feeling bored at all. And I believe it is extremely important for them to start with books that they are interested in, if you are training them to read independently. Renzo could tell most of the stories using his own words, more amazingly, I think he could recite some of them because he will remind me if I miss one or two words when I read to him, without looking at the text. And once, he even pointed out a picture that was used wrongly in one of the books because that entire book was about "Percy" but a picture of "Henry" who looks almost the same to "Percy" in our eyes, appeared somehow.

And a 3 full pages long story is not challenging to him, he could read fluently without getting any help from us at all.

I CAN READ 

This is a set of books I borrowed from my sister as my niece was with I CAN READ school for English enrichment in the past. And I've brought Renzo for an assessment when he was 3. Though I've decided that he doesn't really need their course, I still got the set of books to stand by, in case I need to teach him phonics using their system/method/curriculum. I've picked a random page from their volume 6 book, which is supposed to be their most advanced level of reading, and Renzo had no problem reading it so I guess it's time to return the whole set to my sister since her younger girl might need them, after I zap a copy for Rynus first of course.

Leapfrog
Another set of books I borrowed from my sister, we planned to teach Renzo reading with these easier books and the Leapfrog Tag reading pen, but he somehow picked up the skill of word blending on his own. He read these books only for a short period of time when he was 2-3 years old.

 

All about discipline (Chinese: 儿童礼仪正能量)
The set of books I love the most. There are short little stories and related questions to help Renzo better comprehend what he's learned from the story. He often pick 3 stories at one go, and ask me to read to him, and answers those questions by relating and citing his own experience in daily life.

IQ/EQ books (Chinese: 完美情商智商)
Another set of great books to guide him on proper behaviors. The stories are a lot longer, so I do need to explain to him in English often. Last night we were on a story about baby snail complaining on his heavy "house" - shell on his back being a huge burden, and mummy snail explained to him the reason why this "house" is important, hence encouraged him to always rely on itself!

 

Renzo related that story to his recent efforts in being more independent, like keeping his own toys after playing, taking shower on his own, putting back his plates into sink after meal, helping our helper to sweep the floor, and even opening car door for himself, and his mummy who often feels like a princess while he does that.

I've seen so much benefits of reading together with Renzo everyday! It allows him to think more, discuss more and share more about his opinions. So I am trying to refrain from getting too excited whenever he's able to pick up a complicated story and read on his own. Instead, I am enjoying the time we read together.

Recently, I've read a blog post "5 A Day Books" , and decided to adopt the method introduced there.  Forget about the agenda to get Renzo expand his vocabulary through more reading, and just simply spend time to read WITH him, oh, that means another 5 A Day Books with Rynus didi, that's 10 A Day Books!!

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