Li's enjoying reading

1/6/10 - Wednesday - We went to homeschool group at the gym today and then to the library. We were all checked out, loaded the books/movies in the car and went back in to get Katie, Li and our coats, etc. Li came up to me and asked if he could get a few more books. He had picked out two Captain Underpants books and a Pokeman book.

I said sure! Wow! This was the first time Li was picking out books for himself to read himself. He'd pick out books before, but with the intention of me reading to him. He read one of the Captain Underpants books on the way home aloud to Makana. He showered and then read again at home. He mentioned to me how much he enjoyed it and read some of the funny parts to me. Cool! Love him loving books as I too love to read. Nice that he is enjoying them as I said to him that I like them so much and they can take you to another world if you get into the book. It's also a nice way for me to relax. Now Li can add reading books to his choices of what to do during the day!

Oh, and he read Green Eggs and Ham aloud the other morning (it was to Kanoa or Makana - he had said he wanted to read to them and that they might like that book). He didn't read the last couple pages because the creature eats meat though (and of course Li is a vegetarian).

Also, Li asked when he could join a book club because reading was so much fun. I told him next year he could join the book club that Katie just joined at Camden Library (it is for 4th - 8th graders). I added that he'll especially like it because they have pizza! He was excited. (We'll see if he is able and interested at that point as he is just beginning to read longer chapter books.)

Off topic: Li goes back and forth on whether he feels it is okay with his conscience if he consumes cow milk. He still wants ice cream either way. But now cow milk butter. He prefers Earth Balance. I began making macaroni and cheese from scratch a few months ago. When I first started making it from scratch, Li didn't like the taste of it with rice milk and said I should do it like his friends recipe states..with cow milk so it would taste the same. So I tried it with cow milk and everyone raved about it. Tonight when I was making it, because of his recent conversations about not using cow milk, I told him that I was low on rice milk and usually used cow milk in mac and cheese. He said it was okay to use it and he thought about it and said that maybe he thinks now that the cows don't mind giving us their milk. (ohhh...so unlike Li to think that way. Maybe he felt bad using the cow milk and is trying to convince himself that it isn't so bad so he can enjoy his mac and cheese the way it tastes best to him.) He added that he still thought the animals would mind sharing their meat. He asked me if I also thought the animals would mind sharing their meat. I agreed. (But I do eat it for now...maybe someday I too will go back to being a vegetarian. I'm just not ready yet. I have to feel good about that to truly embrace it. I want to feel happy with my choice. And yet I think ..yeah, right...and the animals I consume in the meantime...ugh!)

1/7/10 - Thursday: Last night Li read in bed up to chapter 8 and was so proud of himself. He wanted to read it out loud, but Jim needed to sleep and asked him to be quiet. He tried whispering and kept reading as low as he could. We had to turn off the lights to help baby fall asleep too. I asked where my flashlight was and Li said he had it (he was already prepared for me to turn the lights out as we need to do that to help baby fall asleep usually). Li eventually got tired and stopped saying "I need to take a break" at chapter 8. He was proud he got that far! That night just before he fell asleep, he said "I'm really enjoying the love of reading." I think he is a bit surprised and pleased to find out how nice it really is to him!

This morning, 1/7, I awoke to Li whispering/reading low the same book. (It was so nice that he had a quiet activity to do as he frequently tosses and turns if he is up before me...and we're in a family bed.) Anyway, cool that he is enjoying it so much! Who says you have to force kids to read and make them read aloud in front of others! Bah! They will read when they are ready and like it too! (I guess there probably are some people who don't enjoy reading....sometimes I meet schooled kids who are not interested in reading any more because they have to do it so much for school. I am so glad my kids can read what they want when they want. And they like many books, especially historical fiction and humorous books and Horrible History type books and ghosts/the supernatural. We just read a great book about Henry Box Brown (tied into Li's interest in slavery and freedom) last week. Today on our way to a homeschool group in Belfast, Katie read aloud good parts from a book on Amelia Earheart and her capture by the Japanese military. Interesting for all of us!