For the love of books...

I have been reading to Z since the day we got him home.

Every. Single. Day.

Together, we have explored classic children's picture books, marevlled at clever illustrations, discovered so many cool facts from our non fiction books, laughed at the comics, learned values, discussed adoption, and so much more.

Now, we are onto chapter books! Z can read very well but he often skips words or loses track of where he is. While he continues to strengthen visual processing, we STILL read aloud daily. Luckily, I LOVE to read and with Z, I am revisting some of my favourite books and discovering new ones that I somehow missed when I was a child. We usually read lying down, cozy under our blankets.I will read a few pages and then he will read 1-2 pages and so we will go back and forth. One observation that I have made is that after we have finsihed reading the entire book, if I leave it lying around so that its accessible and visible to him, he will pick it up on his own and go back to read his favourite chapters on his own. Somehow, hearing teh book read aloud gives him the confidence to read silently.

I also find that just the act of reading has given Z such an advantage in terms of vocabulary, an intrinsic understanding of grammar and sentence structure, spelling, etc. - a great bonus for sure!

One way in which reading has unexpectedly helped us a great deal is to find books with themes that Z struggles with- always wanting to be first, empathy, stranger danger, neurodiversity, peer pressure, writing...

Since the stories are not about him and the writing is not preachy, he gets the point without me having to lecture him. Plus, I get to casually use the language that he is already familiar with when I want to make a point :)

This month, we are reading a book called "Number the Stars." It's a serious book about friendship and fear and courage during WWII. I have never read it myself and as we are reading it, we have had some wonderful mini conversations (no discussion can go on longer than a minute with Z.) Last nght, we discussed what bravery means. For a child like Z who struggles to express himself in an articulate fashion, books help with oracy and create an environment where he understands that I am truly asking for his opinion.