>When my daughter became mobile we removed a floor level cupboard door and
>stocked the shelves with all sorts of books (mostly second hand) for her.
>She could choose a book for us to read to her, she could scrawl in the pages
>with her crayons, rip out pages and reassemble them into a book of her own
>making, whatever she wished. They were her books, it was her bookshelf. It
>wasn't long before certain books became well cared for favorites even as
>others suffered her creative endeavors.
>We did the same thing for our son when he came along. Both grew up with a
>regard for books.
I banned tv for my two oldest, so they didn't have it until they were
well into primary school. But I read to them every night (still do to my
daughter, who is now on the Lord of the Rings, which is making my voice
hoarse).
It's great for _me_ to read out to them, and has had interesting effects
on my own reading - but I wouldn't do it unless they really wanted it.
Chaining a child into bed and forcing him or her to listen for their own
good doesn't sound like fun to me. I guess the main thing for me was
making that primal association between books and pleasure. The rest is
up to them.
They're still too young to tell how this experiment works, but so far so
good - they all love books. My daughter has the nickname Madame Beep
because she is welded to her Gameboy, but books still take up an
appreciable part of her imaginative life.
Best
A
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