Daisy Meadows

I love books. I love to read. Reading is a need I have that must be satisfied just like eating and drinking. Before I had kids I worried that my children might not like to read. This really upset me. When Emily was just a little bitty baby and she wouldn't sit still to hear a story or look at a book, my fears resurfaced.

But I worried for nothing. My Emily LOVES to read. Since she was old enough, she loved to hear a story and look at books. When she was two I introduced her to books on tape. She was able to follow the beeps by herself. Now she spends more time than I would like listening to chapter books on tape.

I worried a lot about Emily learning to read. She learned her ABC's very quickly but she was very resistant to learning how to read. I decided not to push her and let her natural curiosity go at the pace she preferred. I have to admit it was frustrating that she was not reading because she had all the skills necessary to put the sounds together. I told her when you learn to read independently you will be so happy because then you will be able to read whenever and whatever you want. She still didn't want to do more than her 20 or so words she had learned. But I let it go and figured she would progress when she was ready.

Well, this year in kindergarten she took off. She finally had the motivation and drive. She is now doing excellent. She is the top reader in her class and we are so proud of her. For the past few months she has been staying up late at night reading books by herself. Every morning there is a stack of books in her bed. We have had to limit it to five.

But what I'm really excited about is that she just started to read "chapter books". We have been reading the Fairy books by Daisy Meadows (yes, Daisy Meadows-I didn't get it at first). Tonight as I was reading to her, we had to wait for Sam and I asked her to read to me. She read the whole page-no problem! I was astonished! She was so proud of herself. She said she wanted to read these before but she was afraid if she did I wouldn't read them to her any more. I assured her that I would always read to her (for the millionth time) but now she can read her favorite books anytime she wants.

So the reason I'm writing this post is not to brag by any means but to express my joy that my daughter is a reader. Just like I always wanted! As I'm writing this Emily is reading Inky the Indigo Fairy in her bed. Sam and Emily came in a few minutes ago to give me an update (she is reading out loud to Sam) on what is happening. Soon I'll have to go in and turn out the lights but for now I'm just glad Emily loves books. Emily loves to read!