Sharing the Love of Reading

I love to read. I was never that way as a young child, but it was all thanks to my third grade teacher. She held a conference with my mom, to discuss ways to encourage me to read. My parents and my teacher worked together which led me to be a strong reader today.

Now, I share the gift of reading to my son. I am always reading to him. I tell him to "read" to me. So, imagine my surprise when I found out the other night that our town was having a Family Reading Night, sponsored by school libraries and the public library.

My son and I went because hubby was working. We had a surprise visitor--Clifford the Big Red Dog! Instead of my son be excited about seeing him, he turned towards me with a disappointed face saying, "He's not the real Clifford." I was caught off guard because my son is only four *lol*. Yeah, you could see the man's face. I mean Clifford was dressed by one of the public librarians.

Another parent in the audience overheard my son's comments, and said to me first, "How old is he?" I told her four. She continued to say, "Wow, I am surprised he noticed that detail while other children younger and older are running to greet Clifford." She then turned to my son and said, "Honey, Clifford couldn't make it tonight, so he had to send his helpers to come to meet you and the other children." My son looked at her and said, "Oh." That was it. All he said was "Oh."

So every 15 minutes, we went from another room to another room while different educators read to us. It was awesome because my son got to see how people read books in many different ways. Before the night ended, families met in the gym to watch a skit about Junie B. Jones, followed by Juan and the Divas, a performing dance group of our own local librarians wearing fake feather bows and using library carts. They dance to William Tell's Overture and Let's Celebrate!

To top it off, door prizes were given to random winners--adults and children. To my surprise, my son's name was announced as one of the winners. We were expected to go pick up the prize, a book, out the gym doors. My son and I went. My son was excited that he had won a prize. The volunteers couldn't find his poor book. Once they find it, they will send it to the public library for us to pick it up. I explained that to my son. He was a bit disappointed, yet he managed to tell everyone he knew that he had won a prize!

I hate to sound cheesy or cliche, but share the Gift of Reading to your own children.