Reading

We're at a lot of different stages in reading at our house. Tobin devours novels at a pace I struggle to keep up with. Evan is coming into his own as a reader, but most enjoys reading about Pokemon and world records--longer narratives seem not to interest him. And Lauren, always eager to keep up with her brothers, has become really determined lately. She loves to read books that she knows the boys can read and have read. And she likes help, but only on her terms. Please don't help her before she's ready.

Tonight's book was one that we've read with all the kids for a long time: Go Dog, Go!.

More than just decoding, Lauren wonders aloud whether dogs should be allowed to do such things as operate Ferris wheels, go spear fishing, and play banjos ("I think a dog would just probably scratch a banjo anyway.") Most interesting to Lauren is the odd repeated exchange about a girl dog soliciting an opinion about her hat from a disinterested boy dog. While we agreed that the boy dog isn't very nice, Lauren is much more charitable. Then tonight, [spoiler alert] when he finally announced that he likes her hat, Lauren yelled "See! He was finally nice! That's my favorite part." I'll take that as a solid implied lesson.

But don't think she's all sugar and sweet. This kid sleeps next to a picture of a skeleton she drew and scotch-taped to her wall, after all.