Chapter Books

Last week, Henry discovered that he could read chapter books. He loves the "Magic Treehouse" series, which I've been reading to him sporadically for a year or so, and I mentioned to him that his friend Frances reads those books to herself, and maybe he'll do that soon, too. When he started to do it a few days later, I thought it was because of his competitive nature and my nudging him. But no! It was his teachers. Every day he brings a book home from his book bag at school that is filled with a constantly changing array of "just right" books. It was his astute and observant teachers who noticed he was ready to leap, and who made a ceremony of him and his reading buddy going down to the library by themselves to get a special chapter book-- Magic Treehouse, naturally-- to add to their book bags. He proudly brandished it when he got in the car after school, and then ran outside to sit on the woodpile and read as soon as we got home. At bedtime, he read, too. And the next morning, at 6 am, he ran in to our room saying, "I finished it!" He had woken up at 4:30 am to keep reading.

All the "just right" books have to be returned the next day, and he figured he'd have to read the entire book in one day, I guess! (We assured him he could just keep bringing the same book home night after night till he finished it.) Now his routine is to crawl into bed around 7:15 pm and read to himself until he turns out his light at 8 pm. At 8, we hear a little rustling around, and then peaceful silence. Reading!

West Virginia

As we often do, we went to Berkeley Springs, WVA for a long weekend over our spring break. It was unseasonably warm there, as it has been at home, too, and the kids played in an icy mountain stream next to our cabin. The little friend in the top photo came with her parents, too (we're friends from Aggie's preschool) and we made s'mores-- although it was almost too hot to be near the roaring fire!