The Deal: 100 Days of Reading Together

I made a deal with my girl. Read about the deal here.

She does not agree with me that if we don't read together that we do not count that day. She wants to simply cross 100 days off of the calendar.

We have read together three days. We started a junior classic version of Moby Dick. She has picked up several chapter books to read on her own. That's new. Brand new. We went from picture books to simple chapter books all of a sudden. And I want her reading with me for now. I'm not ready to turn her loose with chapter books yet.

I will have to hide the books from her so that we can get through one book before we begin another. She seems to like trying new books without finishing them.

We started the book in the photo, too, and she seems to like it better than Moby Dick. Treasures from Grandma's Attic is a review item for us, and I requested it because I hoped it would be something we could read together.

We have a lovely screened-in porch now, and I asked for a double glider for my birthday, so we've been reading out on the porch while rocking gently in the glider. The porch is free from electronic distractions and we can sometimes hear a band rehearsing in the distance. It's very peaceful.

Last night, she asked if I would read it to her while she soaked in the bathtub. Interesting. When she was little, sometimes I'd bring a book to the bathtub and try to read children's books to her when she was a captive audience. She has never really liked being read to. There's an auditory processing thing, I think. She's never enjoyed reading, either.

However, if she wants me to read to her in the bathtub, I will read to her in the bathtub. We have a soaking tub at our 'new' house, deep enough that I could allow her to get settled and then I could sit beside her and we could see one another's faces without her modesty being compromised.

And I read to her as she soaked in the tub.

We are finally building a bridge between shared reading and guided reading.

And she feels the stress. Sometimes, at random times during the day (when we are NOT reading together), she will shout at me that she doesn't want to read, that she hates it, that it hurts her brain, etc. Sometimes, out of the blue, she'll approach me with another negotiation, "How about 10 days, Mom?" she'll ask, trying to get me to reduce the deal quite a bit.

I've dumped a lot of responsibility on her with the deal, allowing her not to read on days when she doesn't want to. She was surprised to learn that I'm not counting those days toward our 100 days, though, and she's processing this new lesson.

She is not the only one processing our deal. I know that this new pathway we're creating is fragile, and that I must respect it, must travel it at a slow, gentle speed and with great care. On days when the desire to work toward her new toy by consenting to read with me, I must not misuse that willingness by pushing for too much.

We continue to figure out the learning journey together. What a ride!