The joy of reading with my Monkey :)

I can't imagine a life without books; I've been surrounded by them
for as long as I can remember. When my brother and I were small we
regularly visited our local library with my Mum and I have been a
bookworm ever since.
Long before I ever dreamt of having Monkey I
can remember working with a lady, the same age as me, who had 2 small
boys. She told me that she didn't have time to read to her boys and
stuck a DVD on for them in their bedroom at bedtime. I was quite amazed
and felt sad for her and her boys - what a missed opportunity. I
appreciate it's easy for me to feel like this; I'm a 'stay at home' Mum
and I admire any 'working' Mum, I don't know how they juggle everything;
but to me, finding time to read with your child should be a priority -
am I in the minority?

Monkey
has been surrounded by books from the day he was born :) and we've
always had chill out time during the day when we pick a number of books
from his ever-growing collection to read together. I'm lucky; he
absolutely loves being read to and looking at any kind of book. We'll
read anything together - from Joey Rallies Round from the My 1st JCB range to a Ladybird Book classic like Dick Whittington to the information brochures on Steam Railways.
We
joined the local library when Monkey was very little and go every few
weeks for Monkey to pick a new selection of books (he insists we take
the maximum number of 5 these days). He loves these trips and we joined
www.bookstart.org.uk, he has a little passport that he
stamps at the library every time we borrow books. He's building up a
nice collection of their certificates for his memory book.
I
renewed his last selection online (a really easy process) as he was
suffering with the chickenpox; but now he's back to full strength he was
keen to get some new books, so off we went to the library.
This is what we came home with - all selected by my 3 year old bookworm :)


Machines at Work - Tractor
Machines at Work - On the Rails
All Change! - Ian Whybrow & David Melling
William and the Night Train - Mij Kelly & Alison Jay
Superworm - Julia Donaldson & Axel Scheffler
We picked them up at 2pm today and had read them twice before we even went upstairs for bed!
Reading
with Monkey, to me, is quality time, talking about the story and
discussing the graphics. I love that time together, as does he, and
thank my parents every day for instilling the importance of reading from
a young age in me. I hope Monkey grows up feeling the same way.