Friday, April 1, 2016

Apr 1 - Reading is FUN Day

I am a reader and a writer.  I love books.  I published a book.  I am so in love with some books that I made sure those were the first hard copies replaced after the Nashville flood of 2010 took our entire library.  Some I replaced on my Kindle so they can never float down a river, but some ... ya just want to have a hard copy, ya know?  

Fast forward five years from that tragedy. We have had two boys move into our home from the foster system.  They hate reading.  *sigh*  But I really don't blame them!  To be so far behind in school and then new teachers expect you to be further ahead than you are ... well, I loved reading as a child but it in my case it was 'fostered' in a positive way.  Not so in their case.

So we had to do the same.  Slowly.  We are still doing it.  If your kid would rather play x-box than read a book, tell them they can get an hour of electronics for every thirty minutes they read.  We sometimes let ours read twenty minutes if they read out loud to us.

It was challenging for them at first but they sure are motivated to open a book now!  Now, a year later they both have seriously improved their reading levels at school; one actually said to me TODAY..."I really like this story!"  And it isn't even a graphic comic!  (anymore lol) The other one actually asked for a book for Christmas...something about a Zombie goldfish hahaha

It's Reading Is Fun Day and I am thankful that these dudes are seeing the positive world of fiction.  Even if we had to bribe them with x-box and lock up the controllers until the 'payment' was made. Just seeing them pick up a book when there is no other reward than just knowing what is happening in the story ... makes me fall in love with the written word all over again.

It is Reading Is Fun Day.  What is YOUR favourite book?

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