Why I started a blog on boys and reading.

Tweet I have three children. I love to read and wanted to instill that love into each of them. It was easy with my oldest, my only girl. I read to her from day one. From Pat The Bunny and Dr. Seuss, then moving onto to Matilda, Little House on the Prairie, and Anne of Green Gables. As well as classics like Little Princess,and The Secret Garden. I didn't think there would ever be a book we read that she would hate until we got to Treasure Island and she told me she hated it. WHAT? How do you hate pirates, your brothers love them. I wondered to myself then aloud.

While reading to my daughter, my next son came three years later and patiently endured our reading time. He only half listened unless the book involved a dinosaur or monster, then his little ears pricked up. Suddenly it dawned on me, that if I wanted him to listen too, I had to find books he liked. The only problem is that it didn't always agree with what my daughter liked. I decided to break our sessions into two. The first session would be for my younger son then my daughter. They chose vastly different books as their favorites. The roar from the dinosaur in How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight became my sons favorite page. Night after night, he wanted the same book. His sister even got really good at reading it to him with the loudest roar.

When my son was old enough for Treasure Island, he loved it. I rejoiced. I was raising readers by finding books suited to my children. The struggle came with my third child, my youngest son. He always to busy to read, but he listened to every Harry Potter book. I found it was much easier to get my daughter to read than my sons. But, my sons would read if they could find characters and plots that were of interest. That interest definitely involved swords, guns, pirates, dinosaurs, bad guys, and magic much more than love stories and relationship issues.

Whether I liked it or not, my boys were typical boys. I was not going to get them to like "girl" books no matter how many times I read them to my daughter. BUT, I could get them to like books and learning. I just had to adapt to their learning styles. Since so many current studies point to the fact that boys are getting left behind in schools, this blog is for boys. A place where I can review and recommend books for boys, articles for learning tactics for boys and anything else that can help boys get back on track.