This spring one of my girls was given a summer reading log from her school. She needed to read a set number of books throughout the summer and return the log to school on the first day. There's a prize.
"Easy-peasy," I thought, "My girls have to read every day in the summer. No problem!"
Did that happen? Nope. Here's the story.
One of my children is a voracious reader. I kid you not, she's left me in the dust! Earlier this summer, I'd left a half-finished book on the coffee table and gone to bed. The next morning she told me she'd gotten up in the middle of the night, couldn't sleep, came out to the kitchen for some water, saw the book, picked it up and read the whole thing overnight. It's not a short book, it's this book:
I was reading it to stay ahead of my daughter (who loves the series) as I often do when she wants to read a teen series. It's not bad, but not exactly my favorite genre so I was moving along more slowly. But the whole (300+ pages) book?!
Then there's the other kid. She HAS been reading all summer, but she's been "drive-by reading." A few chapters of one book, a few of another, back to the first, now let's start a third...all this results in a child who doesn't finish a single book. Embarrassing.
At first I made this my problem. I thought, "I let them go to Grandma's house too much." [But is it ever too much?] Then I thought, "I should have given her a reading log." But really, a reading log for summer reading? Way to kill the joy of reading! [No...I will never do a summer reading log, by the way...] Then I thought, "Why is this my problem?"
Let me say I take on very little of my kid's problems. Forgot your lunch? Order from school. [Since they hate it that 's usually all the incentive they need.] Forgot your homework? Take the reduced grade and don't forget again! For many years I was unable to solve these problems THEY created as I worked 22 miles from home. By default they had to take care of their own issues. A few times I've delivered forgotten tap shoes/ballet shoes and a violin...but for a price. My price is the cost of a gallon of gas. So, how bad do you want/need that violin?
I decided that this issue is more than a gallon of gas but it's still NOT my problem. I'VE been doing my reading! (Mrs. Perrien does her summer homework!) I've read all kinds of books this summer, including textbooks, professional journals, the Alex McNight series by Steve Hamilton, an Organic Gardening book about garden pests and natural control, and the Fallen series pictured above. There are others I've read, too. I told the kid, "Boy! You've created a problem for yourself!" walked away, and continued reading my journal article on preservice teachers.
If my girls are to develop their own independent reading lives they must be allowed to work through these challenges. She has loved the stories she's read, but she doesn't read as if her life depends on it. In and of itself, that's not a bad thing, and she's so relaxed about getting to the end of the book.
Yesterday she asked me NOT to tell her 6th grade teacher at Back-to-School night...and I didn't. Will she solve her own problem? I don't know; but my house has been blissfully quiet for the past four days and I've loved every moment of it.
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**Credit must be given where credit is due. Thanks to my library goddess friend, Mrs. Hart, who taught me the gas money = delivered goods parenting trick.
