Life with the Goodwillies: Family Reading Promise

**A former colleague of mine started a blog this school year to encourage families to create a Reading Promise. I was inspired by this idea and after playing around with it myself I made a guest post for her.**

The Stay at Home Teacher's Promise: Including the Family

Back in August, I received an email from Mrs. Hartman about Alice Ozma and The Reading Promise. I found it ironic that I received this note on this particular evening because I had just had an especially wonderful reading time with my then 13 month old son. One of the stories we read that night was Ten Little Ladybugs. I can remember bringing this book out a few months before and Colin showing little interest. On this night, however, it was as if the whole book opened up for him. He was mesmerized by the pages, "counting" the ladybugs, and finding them on the page. As I was putting him down to bed, I actually whispered in his ear how much I cherish all our reading cuddles. In my moment of joy, my heart ached wishing my husband could take part in this time too. He is active duty Air Force and has been away from home since July and will not return till Christmas. When I received Mrs. Hartman’s email, I had already made several recordings of my husband reading story books to my son. He also did one of the Hallmark recordable books. Although I had these recordings I wasn’t consistent with playing them for my son.

Reading with Daddy at 3 months old

Once I heard about The Reading Promise I knew that mine and my son’s reading promise would be a little different than others. After several years as a teacher (three of which were at Sinking Springs, go Panthers!) I am now a stay at home mom. At least for now, reading to my son throughout the day is something we do without even having to think about it. I don’t think we have missed a day of reading since he was six months old. My husband, on the other hand, is rarely given this opportunity. I decided then that our reading promise would be Daddy “reading” at least one story a day to our son. Starting August 21^st, Colin and I listened to one of Daddy’s stories each day. We were also fortunate enough to visit Daddy shortly after this where he was able to read in person. These days are always the best. Unfortunately, after a few weeks it became apparent that some days Colin didn’t want to listen to Daddy’s story. Although only a toddler, he is well aware of his Daddy’s absence and it seems the stories are a reminder that he is not here.

Our reading promise was in need of some adjustments. Not only is my sweet Colin often separated from his Daddy he’s also hundreds of miles away from his grandparents, aunts, and uncles. I decided to add all of them to our reading promise. Now, in order to keep our Streak going, Colin must listen to at least one family member other than Mommy each day. Just like Alice and her father, Colin listens to the family member just before bed. I make sure it is the first story we do each night so that I don’t accidentally forget. He’s not quite old enough to remind me yet. I have audio and video recordings of family members on my iPhone that we use most often. On evenings when our schedules align, Daddy reads a story over the phone in real-time, and whenever we are visiting family or they are visiting us Colin will get his story read in person.

Reading with Pappy as part of the Streak

We have been going strong with the Streak so far. I have to admit that there have been a few nights Colin has had a babysitter or he's fallen asleep in the care late in the evening and we missed our reading promise story. I guess it can't be a Streak with missed nights. I've figured out some solutions like playing one of the recorded stories in the car during those unexpected late nights. Since I can't even remember the date of our last missed night, we will officially call today, November 12, 2012, Day 1 of our Reading Promise Streak.

How can our reading promise relate to yours? Perhaps you have a relative far away that you’d like your child to be able to connect with or maybe your child’s father travels for work as well and you’d like him to continue being a part of everyday life at home. Maybe you have to work late or you’re busy taking care of another child but still want to read to your other child.

I have lots of hopes and dreams for our reading promise. I know that it will evolve over the coming years. I imagine my son writing emails to his grandmother about chapter books they are reading together and listening to stories with ear buds on long car rides. No matter how our reading promise changes, one thing I know for sure, my son will be read to every day.

Reading Promise Update

Since writing this post, Colin and I are still going strong with our Reading Promise. While up north in December, Colin got to spend a lot of time being read to by family members and Mommy got a few more recordings for when we are home.