at the start of this year ky was browsing early-readers_or what might be called 'level3'.  they had ard 10-15pgs with a colour picture on every page.  back then although he was capable, he never read unless i asked him to. but these last few months have seen a phenomenal change.  he'll now occassionally pick up a book on his own, and they avg 200/300pg's.

looking back, i didnt know how to help him along.  so all i did was try to stock up on some exciting books and leave them lying around in different rooms... and jam-pack his bookshelf...in the hope that he'd start picking them up.

he did!

well he had to!... because he was required to bring a book to school every day for silent reading in the hall. he hated it to begin with... not the reading, but having to sit still cross-leeged on the floor for so long. it gave him cramps in his legs, followed by pins and needles. so he asked me to take him to school as late as possible. (which i did... but some days i had lsp readg club, so no choice but to take him there early.) and without him knowing, it slowly paid off. :)

but i never knew it was working until the last month...when i realised he was picking up the thicker books and had actually got some way into them.   and here i'd spent the last year stocking up on good readers for ky *to grow into*.  thinking they'd last him until he was 9 or 10. 

somehow it's been a good year for secondhand books at and above his level...

-a couple of scout friends kindly passed on their precious reads... these included favourites such as black beauty, robin hood, heidi, moby dick etc

-i've also been buying some enid blyton books on and off, but these have not yet been touched.

-we were fortunate to find out about a book exchange program run by ikea a little while ago. the kids had loads of books by then, but i thought it wd be a good opportunity to 'upgrade' some of their older readers from when they were younger. (it was very very hard for ky to let go of his books, but fortunately he did when he saw what he cd exchange them for!)  well he came back with another peter pan, and another treasure island (he insisted they were different stories to the ones he already had ;))  another pirate book he found was 'kidnapped'. (these stevenson bks are both likely going to wait until he's older... e subject matter scares him to bits...esp the odd picture of skull n bones!) well he also found another black beauty, and an oliver twist. 2 slim fantasy books about dragons, will probably soon find their way into his schoolbag. :)

-not long ago i was fortunate enough to get a bunch of hardcover classics from a friend: robinson crusoe, the 3 muscateers,  white fang, gulliver's travels, last of the mohicans, war of the worlds and a few others i forget the names of.  these books followed in the footsteps of swiss family robinson, which we'd started as a bedtime reader earlier in the year.  it was all in old english, so we cdnt do too much at a time as i wanted them to understand the vocab.  it was a wonderful read that we all very much enjoyed.... (the only complaint from kayla at the beginning, was that there were no pictures... as compared with our previous night-time classic: alice in wonderland.) but she wd quietly listen in while drinking her milk... stopping every now and then to ask what a certain word or phrase meant...

-other finds were a bunch of little house on the prairie books. we started the 1st about a week ago. (i'm surprised actually, considering robinson crusoe etc are still sitting unread... but perhaps he wants a change.)   kayla's happy because finally she has the odd picture to look at ;))  and kynan finds it gripping.... all talk about red indians, tepees, wild animals and unchartered country.  he can hardly believe how simply e first settlers used to live...and how clever the dad was to build his own log-house from scratch!   the wolves were rather scarey for him though...so i expect he might stop reading 'white fang' for a while ;)  i guess 'white rabbit' to 'white fang' is a bit of a leap!

i could never read more than 1or2 books at a time when i was a kid, but he 's not following suit... presently it's liitle house on e prairie at night, tom sawyer & white fang in his free time, and nim's island in his schoolbag.

he says he's got the best library that any kid could have... (i wish i'd had one like that when i was a kid!!!)  he tells me he's gonna keep them all until he's grown-up. :)   (~will have to see if i can sneak some out for kayla in a few years! :))