Mother-Daughter Reading...

This is the latest evening routine... Our mother-daughter reading time. Notice we both chose great books: The Language of Sisters by Cathy Lamb for me and the Berenstain Bears for my little one. I've been spending a lot of time emphasizing the importance of reading with my daughter, P, and finding fun games to learn new words.

I spoke with a middle school teacher today who said more and more French children are arriving in sixth grade and can't read and write properly. They are pushed through the system, attaining the bare minimum, and by the time they get to middle school they're lost. And by then it's too late, this teacher told me.

The thought is frightening and makes me even more motivated and determined to monitor P.'s progress and support her if she reaches any roadblocks. Reading and writing are the basis for everything so if they aren't acquired... Well, trouble ahead!

I'm hoping that my enthusiasm about reading will rub off on my daughter and last throughout her childhood and her lifetime. After all, that enthusiasm is a gift from my mother and her mother. My mom taught me to read when I was four, and my grandma and I used to swap books when I was a teenager. I still remember how we'd recommend books to each other and then share our thoughts-- sometimes we agreed, sometimes we didn't. But we always had fun.

And that's the whole point. Reading should be fun. So here's to another generation of bookworms!