Since we have joined every summer reading program in town, we headed to the library yesterday to stock up on some new books. If there is a limit for how many books you can check out at one time I am amazed we didn’t hit it. The amount we checked out is obscene. I am pretty sure Lily checked out every chapter book related to fairies and princesses ever made (ugh), and Hannah and I made a serious dent in the Mo Willems section since I am a sucker for that pigeon.
We came home, flung them out all over the floor and dug in. It was a heavenly afternoon of lots of reading, snuggling, giggling basking in the sunny spot on the floor (sadly no window seat in our house). I read to Hannah, Lily read to herself, Lily read to Hannah, and I even got a tiny bit of magazine reading in. It was a great way to spend the day intentionally spending time together. Hannah even began to recognize some words and “read” herself. It made me realize once again how important it is to be intentional about reading with your kids. Of course I know this, but sometimes in the busyness of life and the late bedtimes of summer, reading gets pushed aside a bit.
One of the first places Hannah heads to at the library is the Dora the Explorer section to pick out books that I swear we have read 272 times already. But she never grows tired of them and the love for all things Dora does not seem to be waning. So imagine her delight when a new cartridge came this week for her V.Tech V.Reader Animated E-Book System came that was a Dora story of the Three Little Pigs.
Although I would typically say that family reading time needs to be a time where everyone “unplugs” I must say that the V.Reader does so many of the same things I do to encourage reading skills with Hannah, my pre-reader. It highlights every word as it reads and has games where it encourages your child to use beginning and ending word sounds to figure out words. When Hannah and I were reading “real” books today that is exactly what I was doing. Then we could switch over to the V. Reader (because, hello, Dora is the teacher) and do more of the same. And in true Dora fashion there was even a game to practice some elementary Spanish words.
Are you intentional about reading time with your children? Have you ever had a family reading night with your children? Is it a regular thing? Let me know in the comments and you will be entered to win a V.Tech V.Reader Animated E-Book System 
I was provided with a V.Reader and game cartridge and was compensated for my time in writing this review. As always all opinions are mine. Well mine and my daughters who now can say “The V.Tech V.Reader is muy bueno.”
This posted was submitted to Works For Me Wednesday at We Are That Family.
36 Comments
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Kelly
says:
My daughter is 2 and we read to her every.single.night! We have since she a couple months old. I am a huge reader and many times during the afternoon, we will both lie on my bed and read. I will read whatever I am currently engrossed in and she will “read” her books to her stuffed animals. She is pretty good at identifying all her letters, but is still a ways away from actually reading. I really, really hope that my little girl (named Lily!) is like I was when I was younger, and like your Lily is now.
Kelly´s last blog ..My Family
July 13th, 2010 at 11:08 pm
Donna
Twitter: FrugalGalKY
says:
My daughter is 4 and we have read to her almost every day since she could sit up on her own. As a result, she knows many, many words already without ever stepping foot in a pre-school. She is very interested in learning to read by herself and constantly works hard to remember all of those words. I highly recommend reading regularly to a child and using products like the V.Tech reader to fill in when Mommy must take care of other household responsibilities.
Donna´s last blog ..Win It Wednesday – 7-14-10 – Post your Giveaway Here
July 14th, 2010 at 12:16 am
eli
says:
I’m so glad to hear you are intentional about reading. Have you ever been intentional about writing?
As a teacher, I would recommend that you also make an effort to involve your kids in writing during the summer!
July 14th, 2010 at 7:50 am
erin h
says:
I’ve always been a bookworm so I read to my 20mo old everyday! When she gets tired of mommy reading she snatches the book away and tries to read by herself. A V.Tech V.Reader would be perfect for those moments!
July 14th, 2010 at 7:51 am
Amber Douma
says:
Of course we do read everyday but we had only had a few family reading nights. Those nights, like you, usually fall after we go to the library or we have received books from a school book order
Amber Douma´s last blog ..Happy 4th of July!!
July 14th, 2010 at 7:58 am
crystal
says:
My 4 year old has just started “reading” stories to my 2 year old at bedtime. Most of it is from his memory, but he does seem to be able to recognize some words, which amazes me. This is a great giveaway – I love anything that encourages kids to read!
July 14th, 2010 at 8:23 am
Christie
says:
I don’t have kids yet, but my niece and nephew have reading as a part of their bedtime routine. And a punishment to my niece is “no book tonight” I’m not sure if that’s good or bad…
July 14th, 2010 at 9:28 am
Becky @TheVioletFig
Twitter: thevioletfig
says:
I would love to win this contest, but not for my own kids. I’m a kindergarten teacher, so this would be perfect for my classroom! This year I will be teaching special ed kids along with regular ed, so I think this would especially benefit them!
Becky @TheVioletFig´s last blog ..Top Ten Tuesday
July 14th, 2010 at 9:36 am
Patti
says:
One of may favorite things to do is to read with my kids. We haven’t had an “official” family reading night, but we do it most nights anyway.
July 14th, 2010 at 10:00 am
Anjanette
Twitter: anjanetteopal
says:
We read before naps and bedtime, for sure. And we always have books with us when we are on the road or in a waiting room. My 2 year old could probably recap all of the (many) books on his shelf for you at this point. Not really surprising – my husband is a librarian.
Anjanette´s last blog ..Daddys Favorite Girl
July 14th, 2010 at 10:08 am
Jen @ BigBinder
says:
Well, you know we are pretty serious about the reading thing over here. One thing I have noticed is that it is REALLY hard to track those summer reading programs once kids can read to themselves. They have no interest in writing down the books they read and I don’t always know until the next AM they’ve read some after they were supposedly in bed the night before.
I don’t think that counts as a family reading night though, if we are all in our own beds, supposedly sleeping, but really reading
Jen @ BigBinder´s last blog ..Top Ten Things To Do Before You Go On Vacation With Your Petand a contest!
July 14th, 2010 at 10:19 am
suzannah @ so much shouting/laughter
says:
we are big readers, although i feel like my second one is not read to like first was/is. this is a good reminder to read to my baby more.
we live at the library. best place ever:)
suzannah @ so much shouting/laughter´s last blog ..in summer- the song sings itself
July 14th, 2010 at 10:33 am
mandi@itscome2this
says:
I don’t know if we have a specific place (is that bad?!) definitely the bedrooms & then we just read through out the day – so in the playroom or on the couch.
I’d love to win … thanks for letting me play along:)
mandi@itscome2this´s last blog ..Works for me wednesday … the gift bin
July 14th, 2010 at 10:47 am
Staci Brown
says:
Well, I don’t have a family, so I don’t have a family reading time, but I do have 5 nieces and nephews so any of them would love this!!
July 14th, 2010 at 11:32 am
nicolerenae
says:
We try to read for at least 15 minutes a day, usually before bed. We are also doing every reading club in town! Thanks for the giveaway!
July 14th, 2010 at 11:59 am
Eos Mom
says:
I read to my son before nap and before bedtime–that’s been our routine since forever. Unfortunately, my 1-year-old misses out on emost of this because she goes to bed earlier than my son–so I need to work on that. (She is still at the destroys-books-stage, which makes it hard too.)
What I hope to do when the kids are older is read classics like the Hobbit, the Wind in the Willows etc. as a family reading night (or every night before bed, we’ll see). My 5th grade teacher would do that and it was so special! I’m reading looking forward to that!
Eos Mom´s last blog ..Linky Love-July 10
July 14th, 2010 at 12:01 pm
Sandy
says:
We make it a point to read at least 15 minutes every night to our boys as part of their bedtime routine. My husband understands its really important, and is always willing to read to the boys whenever they ask! I would so love it in blue.
Sandy´s last blog ..Mom quote of the day
July 14th, 2010 at 12:21 pm
Christy @organic princess
Twitter: christyd526
says:
My son is 6 and we read almost every night as part of bedtime routine. The tricky nights are weekends because it does end up being later. He gets mad when we don’t have time to read stories! During the summer, he reads a book to me every morning along with 2 pages in his bridge book for the summer.
Christy @organic princess´s last blog ..Menu Plan Monday
July 14th, 2010 at 12:27 pm
Milehimama
Twitter: milehimama
says:
We don’t have a reading night but we do have a reading time. Once in a while the neighbor boys come over and read, too! I took my boys and their friends to the library and signed them up for the reading program.
July 14th, 2010 at 12:38 pm
Nichole Seiler
says:
We read 2-3 stories everynight with our girls. They won’t let us put them to bed without a story at home. If we forget they come and tell us. They pick the stories and we love reading to them.
mommy.n.girls@gmail.com
July 14th, 2010 at 1:52 pm
Bethany
says:
I probly don’t read with my kids as much as I should. Especially in the summer, when all we want to do is be outside! As my oldest is starting to learn to read, I am trying to read more with both of them
July 14th, 2010 at 1:57 pm
Nicole H.
says:
I guess I never thought myself “intentional in reading” until I have met people that aren’t. I read to both of my children at least two times a day. We do limit the books as we read prior to nap and bed. We only read 3 books (about 10 minutes) each time to each child or the process could take too long. We also have reading time on rainy mornings/afternoons.
Being a book lover, I did not know this was not “normal”. I did like the idea on being intentional on writing… and I need to be intentional on coloring as well. Drug out the colors yesterday to the back deck and for some reason, I was the only one coloring…
July 14th, 2010 at 2:49 pm
Diana
says:
Reading to our 4 and 2 year old is a regular part of our day. Most of the time it takes place before bed but it is also a quiet time for my 4 yr old and I when his little sister is napping. When he was making the transition away from naps we were able to put him in his room with a stack of books for some “quiet time” where he could at least rest. We have a wonderful children’s section in our local library and we too have joined the summer reading program. It makes me so happy that both of our children have a love for books.
July 14th, 2010 at 3:19 pm
lisa
Twitter: 27lisa27
says:
I try to read to the kids every day. Our routine is to pile into my bed together in the middle of the afternoon. Lately we’ve been reading chapter books. We just finished The Mouse and the Motorcycle, and now were reading a book from the Larry Boy series.
July 14th, 2010 at 3:23 pm
Laura
says:
We read to our children morning noon and night, whenever they want to. We also make regular trips to our local libraries. We love to buy books at garage sales to build up our own collection.
Laura´s last blog ..Road Trip- Chicago’s Brookfield Zoo
July 14th, 2010 at 3:36 pm
Leigh Bright
says:
Reading is evident in our house since I am a middle school librarian. We have ALOT of books around here and we read every night….it could be a physical book or a book on the computer. It is part of our routine before bedtime. That is one thing my pediatrician told me on an early visit with my son….”Read to him every day.” I think a family reading night is a good idea and I see us doing it soon!
Leigh B.
robandleighbright@suddenlink.net
July 14th, 2010 at 4:15 pm
Krista
Twitter: marriedlife
says:
Um blue please! this would be awesome for car trips!
July 14th, 2010 at 5:52 pm
Erika
says:
We LOVE reading time!!! Not only do we love reading together, but my daughter loves reading on her own, too. I recently wrote an article about reading with your babies and toddlers: http://moretimewithourkids.blogspot.com/2010/05/how-to-read-with-your-baby-or-toddler.html
Such a great gift to give your kids!!
Tr
Erika´s last blog ..The Weight of the World
July 14th, 2010 at 10:46 pm
Britiney @ Consider the Lilies
says:
We too are taking advantage of the local reading program and reaping the benefits. My 10 year old son has read the entire Peter and the Starcatchers Series just since school got out! We’ve never had a family reading night, but it sounds like a terrific idea!!
Britiney @ Consider the Lilies´s last blog ..Birthday Card & Other Stuff
July 15th, 2010 at 12:36 am
Emily
says:
We try to read at least 1 book at bedtime as part of the regular routine. As a reward if bedtime preparations go quickly, we do 2 or 3 books…
We would love to win this giveaway!
July 15th, 2010 at 11:17 am
Kelly
says:
My almost 2-year-old loves to be read to. He will unload all the books in his basket, and we have to read every single one each night. I’m his fave reader. Probably because I have the patience to do it. We read the stories but also stop and talk about certain things, too (colors, animals).
July 15th, 2010 at 12:08 pm
Rebecca M
says:
My son is 3 and I have read to him every night since the day he was born. He actually expects it now and always gets to pick out the book. I look forward to the cuddles and now he is starting to “read” his fav stories to me. He would just love the V. Reader!
Rebecca M´s last blog ..Tubby Tuesdays- Slacker Much-
July 15th, 2010 at 3:05 pm
Beth
says:
This would be the best gift for my nephew who turns one this month!!! My favorite memories from growing up are the ones where my dad was reading to me! Love it!
July 15th, 2010 at 3:23 pm
Kelly C
says:
My boys would absolutely love this!!!! What an awesome giveaway!
July 15th, 2010 at 4:57 pm
mommalovesmee
says:
We have Family Reading Night twice a week. We read Book to our son. At the end we ask him few questions on what we read in the book and reward him if answers our questions. It becomes really a good fun this way.
(mommalovesmee AT GMAIL DOT COM)
Diaper Diaries
Twitter: DiaperDiaries
Reply:
July 15th, 2010 at 7:18 pm
What a great idea!!
July 15th, 2010 at 5:24 pm