i learned that my tolerance for harry potter is about 20 days.  my tolerance for green eggs and ham is about 20 readings.  something about 20.....i don't think reading w/ my child makes me a better mom.  don't know why i think that - i just don't.

I'm with you, Blondie.

Reading with my children has taught me that I should never, EVER homeschool.  If it did anything, it brought out the worst in me.  Now, I actually like reading to my kids (and we did get through the first 4 Harry Potter books that way and then they read them all on their own), but listening to them read to me?  I'm tensing up just thinking about it. 

My youngest is the only one who reads out loud to us now, and she's very good at it.   Lucky for her.  She's reading an old Hardy Boys mystery this week and it's been vaguely entertaining! 

Oh, and I'd just like to add that I can't stand listening to anybody read to me.  My mother will call and read me something from the paper and I break out in hives.  My husband hates that too.  I wonder what's wrong with us...

I read a LOT to my son when he was an infant.  He was one to always sit still and listen (or point to the pictures) even when he couldn't really understand the words I was saying.  We still love reading together and he is 4 years old now.  My daughter, on the other hand, will not sit still to allow me to read a book.  I get annoyed very quickly when trying to sit down with her to read.  I thought when my son started preschool that I would have those mornings to start reading with her more often.  I just don't think it is worth the irritation of trying to get her to sit still.  She's clearly not interested.  I feel guilty for not spending as much time reading to her, and I hope that if I keep trying she will eventually like reading.  We'll see.  My son is very good at remembering what I read to him and can (and has been able to since he started speaking) finish a whole paragraph (word for word) if I start the first sentence on the page.  Of course his favorite books are easier for him to do this with, but it's interesting to me how he can remember the words after reading a new book only a couple of times.  It's amazing to me, actually!

originally posted by HeyGirlfriend

Oh, and I'd just like to add that I can't stand listening to anybody read to me.  My mother will call and read me something from the paper and I break out in hives.  My husband hates that too.  I wonder what's wrong with us...

HG--WOW--you REALLY hate to have someone read to you.  I don't really like it either, but I don't get hives.  That's interesting!  For me, it's more like I lose focus when someone is reading to me.  I'd rather read it myself, thank you!

Ive learned reading to my son is some of our best bonding time.  I no longer read dr seuss- those are his to read to me.  I read chapter books to him- it keeps me interested longer.  We love to read together, and hes so willing to turn the tv off to hear me read a book. 

As for making me a better mom, Id have to say it helps.  Not that if I didnt read to my son, I would be a bad mom but reading to him has given us a great bond over something that may not otherwise be there.  Andrew is 7 and he still loves to jump in bed with me so I can read him a book.  When I'm sick in bed, he loves to read to me.  :)

i will quit being a perfectionist with o.c.d. when i quit making mistakes!   missmom2u

With the exception of my kids (whose developing reading skills I marvel and rejoice at nearly every day), I hate listening to others read. The speaker is usually too slow for my pleasure and I'm too easily distracted.

But I'm with missmom on the rest of it. 

Reading together is among my absolute favorite things to do. And we do it a lot. Good stories open up great conversations about characters, their dilemmas, history, feelings, dreams . . . ahh. Good stuff.

It's cozy-while-we-cuddle-under-our-favorite-blanket-on-the-couch time. Sometimes it's giggle time. Often it's ask-a-lot-of-questions time. It's a time for us to think and imagine and wonder about other people and places. It's a chance to observe and appreciate a great turn of phrase or a perfectly chosen word (okay, that last one's more for me than them :-).  

To keep it real, I have to confess that in spite of having painted what I imagine to be a lovely picture of warmth and togetherness and intellectual stimulation, my boys would still prefer a good light saber fight to read aloud time. 

I don't know that reading to my kids makes me a "better" mom. Do you mean better than I would be if I didn't read with them? It's too much a part of my life to imagine any other way so I can't answer that. Or do you mean better than the moms who don't do it? Well of course! (Just kidding.) Reading with my kids is one thing that, yes, I think makes me a "good" mom, but jeesh, there are a thousand ways to be a good mom. I know HG has the spontaneous and fun thing down well, so I'm willing to give her a pass at the fact that she's willing to let her kids drown in a pool of maternal literary neglect.

A chicken crossing the road is poultry in motion.

"I know HG has the spontaneous and fun thing down well, so I'm willing to give her a pass at the fact that she's willing to let her kids drown in a pool of maternal literary neglect."  -- mnmmmm

LMAO!  Just be thankful for them that I don't homeschool!

I have to tell you though, in spite of my intense dislike for hearing, "andthehelicopterbladeswentwooshwooshwooshasitflewbyourhouse," in complete monotone, I did put on my tolerant face and do my very best!  And now, all my kids LOVE to read! 

(I have no idea how that turned out so well.  Good teachers, I'm sure!)

Oh!  But I do relish going over math problems!  My daughter is taking Algebra this year and I love, love, LOVE going over stuff with her when she has a problem!  She, naturally, thinks I'm crazy!

Does that sort of make up for it?

You have nothing to make up for, HG :-)

But algebra? Now I think you're even odder than I did before.

A chicken crossing the road is poultry in motion.

I LOVE algebra!  It's like a fun puzzle! 

However, I hated calculus.  The only good part of it was when you got the problem solved down to the point where you could use algebra to solve it.

I want you all to know that after I publicly announced my dislike of listening to my kids read, my guilty conscience has had me ask my little one to read even more to me at bedtime.    She actually told me 2 nights ago that I had, "heard enough" and needed to let her go to sleep!

i loved calculus...still tutor it

46 more pages of harry potter to go, but who's counting?