CJ the Bookworm

I just had to make a blog about CJ’s feats these past few days. Halos ma-memorize na nya ang “The Foot Book” and “Hop on Pop”, both by Dr. Seuss. And to think we just bought those books in July! I am so glad I got the idea of buying books from Booksale from Mommy Trina of homeschoolphilippines.blogspot.com. I don’t know her personally, but I came across her blog when I was researching about homeschooling. She wrote about the books that she bought for her son Nitoy. I tried buying some books too ( I got some tips from my friends Farrah and May that I should buy Dr. Seuss books). And now CJ is hooked! He is only 2.5 years old but he loves books! Of course he doesn’t know how to read yet (though we are thinking if we can read somehow because it’s quite difficult to memorize sounds and connect them with the pictures. It’s amazing how he knows the right words that are written on the pages when he flips the pages and “reads” them. Hmm.) but he always wants me to read to him. I read somewhere that when reading to a child, be as animated as you can be, and I do my best to read “with feelings” so to speak. Reading aloud is good for me too because it forces me to brush up on my English. I don’t usually speak English (I usually only speak straight English when I’m angry hehe) but with this exercise, I’m hitting so many birds with one stone. I’m teaching CJ to love books, how to read, and how to pronounce, I’m brushing up on my English, and of course my son and I are getting closer as reading is one of our bonding moments.

I don’t remember reading many books when I was a child, though I do remember that we had a few board books. As we (my brother and I) grew older, our parents bought us those nature and science books, but not the simple story books. Would you believe I wasn’t able to read any Dr. Seuss book? Well, I guess there are also many others who haven’t read his books but I’m glad that I am able to read them, albeit only now.

My next idea is to bring CJ to a nice bookstore, like Powerbooks or a different bookstore. Once when we were in Mall of Asia, I went into a bookstore where a mother was reading to her child in one corner. The child was so young, probably only 2-3 years old and she knew what the story was all about already. What a cool idea. You can read all the books that you want, and for free! Naka-aircon pa. Probably the family can do this by end of September.