Reading Memories

[Emily]

Hi all! So im currently working on a project that highlights the benefits of children reading with their parents and I thought it would be cool to start it out with some memories of people's experiences. If you want to be part of it just describe your favorite memory of a time when you were older than seven and reading with mom or dad. Thank you!

[Anna]

I wasn't quite a child but when I was in 5th grade I had a horrible case of tonsillitis with a super high fever. I'm terrible at being sick and was whining about how I felt too sick to read and my mom brought me a big bowl of chicken noodle soup and read a babysitter club book to me. It was probably the last time anyone ever read aloud to me.

[Emily]

Aww that's so sad!! Yeah i didn't mean to throw people off with the "child" i mean between like 2nd and 8th grade. Thanks for the memory!

[Kelly]

When I was just learning how to read, I thought I was awesome and could do it all by myself the first time. I got mad at my dad when he tried to read to me and help. I even made him leave the room. After like 5mins I realized I couldn't read all the big words. I felt so bad that I asked my dad to come back and read the entire book to me, and he did exactly that!! We actually have the whole thing on tape. What a great dad!!!

[Amy]

Oh wow. I have so many memories of this, but if it's only 2nd - 8th grade I'll try to think of things that happened then. As to before that, my dad read me The Hobbit before I was 2. He must have been trying to brainwash me early :)

In elementary school, my dad and I would read together every night before I went to bed. The books I remember most were the Nancy Drew series and reading Lord of the Rings. You can't question how awesome my dad was when he sat with me every night, reading Nancy Drew books aloud! With those, we'd usually each read 2-3 pages and then switch off. With The Lord of the Rings, I think we started reading it when I was in the 3rd grade. We read The Hobbit aloud first, and then continued on with the series. For these, we had collector's edition copies so the pages were huge. Usually we'd each read a page aloud and switch off. We'd probably only read 3-4 pages a night, but we eventually got through the whole series. I used to always ask my dad read the parts in the books where characters were singing because I loved the voices he did. Our copies had illustrations as well, and my dad would ask me to describe what was going on in the picture. That helped a lot with reading comprehension because all of the illustrations were directly from actions in the book, and it really helped me gain the ability to explain what was going on.

I have a lot of good memories from reading with my dad :)

[Molly]

The only person I ever remember reading to me was a babysitter. That's sad lol. My parents never really enjoyed reading although on occasion they would. I wish they would have..I think I might have liked reading throughout my preteen/teen years.

[Denise]

Once in 3rd grade I had to read a certain amount of books aloud to one of my parents and have them sign a paper saying I did it. I hated reading aloud because I could read a lot faster silently, but my mom wouldn't let me do that (that's cheating!).
I was about halfway through the first book and came to a word I didn't know, so I asked what it was but my mom didn't answer. I looked up at her & she'd fallen asleep! I figured she wouldn't know if I read the books aloud or not, so I read the entire pile of books silently until the last part of the final book. Then she woke up & thought I'd been reading aloud the whole time. :)

[Kimberly]

haha, that's awesome Denise.

I remember in 6th grade we had to do "buzz" reading. I hated it. We had to make buzzing noise as we read. Stupidest thing I'd ever heard of.

On a more positive note, I remember my dad reading to me. What's really amazing about it is that he didn't like reading, he still doesn't. But he read to me all the time. We always read the classics, Charlie and the Chocolate factory, James and the Giant Peach. Stuff like that.

My mom loved to read, but wouldn't read to me. I think it's interesting that I got my love for reading from the parent that didn't enjoy it. :)

I had a really great teacher in the first grade that loved to read and taught all of us how to love it the same way she did. I still keep in touch with her actually, we're facebook friends. :)

[Kelsey]

When I was a kid, my dad used to read to me every night. The ones I remember best are Old Yeller and Big Red, but there were so many. It was my favorite part of my day. I still love being read to! It's funny, because even now, I'll go home to visit (my family is in Minnesota and I'm in California so I don't see them too much), and I'll ask my dad to read to me. I even ask my boyfriend to read to me! It's kind of weird, but it's something I never grew out of. Listening to someone else read a book is so soothing to me!