Digger Driving

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 🙂

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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.

9 thoughts on “The joy of reading with my Monkey :)

  1. I feel the same. Reading is lovely quality time. We don’t make it to the library so much though, luckily we do have so many books at home but keep meaning to go more as there is something fun for kids about choosing them from the library! fondly remember going there often as a kid myself

    1. I don’t know about your local library but our’s runs a Rhymetime session once a month for under 3’s – its free and for half hour. Singing and story reading – I would recommend it to anyone. Books are just wonderful, we have our own library here too 🙂

  2. Hi Mary, loving the blog. As you know, I am a working mum of two under 5’s and often also a solo parent as husband is frequently gallivanting round the world. However, I always and without fail manage to find time to read at least two stories at bedtime to the kids. And now Arran, aged 4, reads me a story too, unless he is just “too tired Mummy!” There is no excuse not to have this quality quiet time before bed…..if you have to wait an extra 15mins for tea and Sky+ Corrie then big deal IMO 🙂 By the way, there is no 5 book limit at the library…….we brought home 11 books on Arran’s card last week.

    1. Don’t tell Monkey there is no limit!!! Trust me, with the amount of books we have here, and the pre-school library books he gets, five is definately enough for us. Although, you are now leaving me wondering where i picked that random number from then! Must get organised and sort out for trial with martial arts – just needed to be out in the fresh air today x

      1. I know…..I always end up turning the house upside down to find that last elusive book 2 days after they were due back….thank goodness there is no fee on kids tickets!

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