Print Rich Environment

Today while I was making dinner, Sophie was sitting in the front room telling me all about Laura Ingalls Wilder. She was reading a biography that I had picked up at the library a few days ago. We recently finished Little House on the Prairie and my kids had wanted to know more about Laura and Mary and where they would go next. This week we have been listening to On the Banks of Plum Creek in the car and Farmer Boy has been our read aloud. The kids didn't quite know how Farmer Boy fit in with the other stories but when Sophie read the biography she figured out that Almanzo's last name is Wilder and that he and Laura later get married. She was so excited to tell me she had finally figured it out.  I love it when my kids pick up books and get excited about what they are reading. All I need to do is provide the books and they do the learning! 

Sophie has also really loved looking through The New Way things Work, which is another book I picked up at the library to go along with our history chapter next week. She has been taking it to her room and reading it late into the night. The next day she tells me all about some of the new things she has learned. 

The boys have been so Star Wars crazy it is amazing they pick up anything else in their free time but I picked up Calamity Jack at the library for them. I should have picked up both copies that were on the shelf because these two boys have fought over it ever since it came home. Henry informs me it is a little more scary then Rapunzel's Revenge.  I still haven't read it (My husband has read it to the kids as their bedtime book) but I think I will have to look through it before we return it. I have already been told that we need to buy it. I guess we need a copy to sit next to our Rapunzel book. 

I don't know why it surprises me to see how much my kids enjoy books. They really enjoy stories. Then the stories always get incorporated into their artwork, their lego or Knex building and any other play. Tonight for dinner we ate "bandersnatch" (It was actually Salmon) that they had caught somehow. I know a Jabberwocky was involved but I don't know the whole story.  And while they waited for their catch to cook, they drew pictures of Laura's dugout house with an ox falling through the roof. They all thought that part of the story was hilarious. 

Once your kids love stories they just seem to soak up information. It is a good thing too. I can't say I have had much time or energy to do much else recently. School for us, the last few weeks/months, has consisted mainly of reading. Me reading aloud to them or listening to audio books. Sophie also has been good about reading books to the boys and even Ian has started to read a bit too. 

It is a print rich environment in which we live, and we love it!