Read, Read, Read

Oh the guilt.  I've been reading The Well Trained Mind the past few days to figure out what I want to do next year.  I use this book as my guide for method and curriculum.  It is a guide to classical education, and it is very thorough and rigorous.  And full of READING.  Not just the kids reading, no, parents reading TO the kids.  And now I feel so delinquint!!!  Do you know people actually read to their children for like a long time each day! An hour or two or three???  It's true; I read daily entries from fellow homeschoolers reassuring me that they spend some good chunk of time (45 minutes up to 3 hours) reading to their children.  I mean, with all the things we have to get done in any given day, how  how how do we sit down and read each day? 

After giving it some thought, I realized it's just like any one of the those other things we do actually in any given day.  We make time for it.  If it is important enough, we fit it in.  No matter what.  And I think I need to do that.  I need to evaluate where some of my time is spent (or wasted) and rearrange a thing or two to ensure my little ones (all of them) get a read-aloud from me.  The benefits are immeasurable, apparently, and according to older children it is a highly cherished memory.  I like to spend some time finishing the kitchen in the evening. It's a hectic time, but what if I just make sure that I'm all done by a certain time and go up to the littlest ones bedroom and read for 20 minutes.  Or maybe after lunch?  All I know is that it won't happen unless I free myself up and do it.  I have done it off and on over the past school year, and they've loved it so much when I have read.  I pick books they normally wouldn't read on their own, some types of classics usually, and they really like it.  Insha'Allah, I can get on board with this and put it on the calendar to read out loud.  These are my musings this evening, and I do hope I can get into this new habit.