Operation Playtime Day 4 of 12: Book marathon

On

1. Operation playtime- come join in! 20th January 2009
2. #OPT starts tomorrow
3. Operation Playtime Day 1 of 12: Blocks
4. Operation Playtime Day 2 of 12: Record a nursery rhyme or action song together
5. Operation Playtime Day 3 of 12 Cooking
6. Operation Playtime Day  4 of 12:  Book marathon

We love reading. We also take it for granted. We all read but how much time? Bedtime only/sometimes? For a project only or just for fun? Whatever the reason- take today as [tag]book[/tag] marathon day.
I very much enjoyed The Read-Aloud Handbook. Which led us to focus on…reading stories aloud even as they get past 6. We also love audio stories and hope our kids will continue to love listening to stories as we do.

Along the same theme; a family favourite we bought some time ago in the UK :. [tag]The Hutchinson Treasury of Stories to Read Aloud[/tag] . This is our current popular read.

The BG has almost daily reading books from Kindie to read. I wanted him to still enjoy reading even though he’s learning. I didn’t want him put off reading by the struggle of it and missing out on the fun of the words.

The MO seems to have an insatiable appetite for books. We say, “Don’t sit down for long otherwise MO will bring you a book!” and it’s true.

The LO has realised his fingers can be directed and screw up and grab really well so he’s truly getting into books too. So with all this reading going on I need to find fun books to read as well. This compendium has 44 stories. Yes you read right 44- try buying 44 books separately for around $40.

The 1000 picture book blog post has been playing on my mind. My date planner is always nearby so I’m recording our books in there on each day. I’m not aiming for 1000 picture books but recording what books we read seems a fun thing to do. When I went home I was able to show my oldest some of my reading books still on my shelf in my bedroom. I’d love to be able to show the boys the appetite they had for books when they are older. I hope it’s still remains.

This is one of those unplugged activities we all do. Let’s change it a little bit and do something different than usual.

Ideas

• Make a fort and read under the sheets or under the table.
• Choose a theme of books and read. ( i.e. poetry, rhyme, dinosaurs, princesses, Ancient Rome, minibeasts, Thomas the tank etc)
• Read for an amount of time rather than an amount of books ( or the other way around)
• Let the youngest choose the most books and the oldest choose the least.
• YOU get to choose the books instead of the kiddos
• THEY get to choose the books from a selection
• Download an audiobook from Audible.com
• Listen to a story from Storynory.com
• Visit the library and find an audio story/ and written story combination.
• and many more……….

Share your ideas

What are your favourite books? How do you keep reading really interesting and fun as the kids get older? What read alouds or picture books are your favourites? Do you have goals like 1000 books in 2009 or 12 chapter books in 12 months; go to the library every week?

NB: I know that ‘marathon’ suggests a race of reading 100s of books. That’s not my idea. More- reading more than you would usually do/doing something different. Instead inspiring and promoting reading as a direct activity rather than a fill in activity ( got 10 minutes) or bolt on activity ( bedtime).

• Put your thoughts in a blog post and use that link, not your blog, into Mr Linky. We want to go right to your post 🙂
• Add a comment here as well if you’d like.
• Follow the other Operation Playtimers and comment on their #OPT post.

See you tomorrow.