Love of Reading Week

Last month I mentioned how cool it is for Maddie to have her daddy at school all the time. When I attended the elementary assembly on Monday with Maddie to kick off Love of Reading Week, I was completely gob-smacked when she turned to me and said, "Look Mommy! It's Mr. Torris!"

Even though I'm a professional working woman, I'm also a mom and working in this environment let's me be a mom even when I am working. Everyday I walk to school with Maddie, I think of all those moms back home that drop their children off with family members or day care providers. How lucky am I? Sitting front and center at the assemblies with Maddie lets me talk to her about her day when we get home. We spent the rest of the week talking about Mr. B's silly socks on stage.

To quote Maddie's teacher, "children and teachers have been thoroughly enjoying all activities organized by the Library for Love of Reading Week! On Monday, teachers performed on stage in the auditorium to “kick off” the week. On Tuesday, we wore READ ME shirts- some of the messages on the shirts were great- “Mommy reads to me”, a list of “My favorite books”, a funny quote about sharing by Silverstein, an “innocent” “I didn’t do it” etc. On Wednesday, we Dropped Everything And Read. On Thursday, we wore crazy socks and met with visiting author Kathryn Lasky, who read to us one of her favorite books. We also saw a fantastic musical production of the Kimmel book: “The Greatest of All” performed by Grade 2 students. On Friday, we wore pajamas to school and met with visiting author Eric Kimmel, who read/told us one of our favorite books that we focused on in December - “The Gingerbread Man”."

I can't imagine Maddie actually reading some day, but I suppose that it's only a matter of time! Afterall, I couldn't image her walking, eating real food, talking coherently, singing the alphabet, etc... When we are out and about she is very aware of the letters around her. She'll point out "Maddie's M" or "Sophia's S". I know that we won't push her to read - rather we'll just be normal. We'll read to her throughout the week and we'll let her "read" to us when she wants to do so, but we won't push her. As her father always says, "Life is about the journey...". We'll just turn Love of Reading Week into a Love of Reading Life!