I blame the parents. We sat down at the start of summer vacation with our 9 y/o daughter and 7 y/o son. She had a goal to read 25 books during summer vacation. His goal was 10 books. I'm not talking Cat-in-the-Hat either. I'm talking real books...Black Beauty, Swiss Family Robinson, etc. She hit her goal with two weeks to spare. He hit his goal with three days to spare. He doesn't particularly care to read...would rather play video games and watch TV, but that doesn't fly in this house. Our little girl is already a book worm.
Yeah, it is amazing what a little bit of encouragement will do. Once my daughter took off reading Nancy Drew after getting her feet wet with the Boxcar Children, it was off she went. The only book that she has complained about was Moby Dick. If that is the only one so far, I must be doing something right. They can learn so much from books, it is really a treasure to one’s soul to see the children reading.