Update: My Three Year Old Bookworm

Before my eyes I have watched my tiny 6 pound peanut become a “big kid.” My husband reminds me that we haven’t even gotten to the part I was most excited about before becoming a parent. I actually used to be quite afraid of babies, and I had a plan with my sister somewhere around high school age that when we grew up and started families she could keep the babies until they were about 5, and then I would take over. My, how this Bookworm has changed my heart. I’m simultaneously mourning the loss of his infancy, babyhood, and toddlerhood, while so very proud of the little man he’s becoming. Happy Third Birthday, Preschool Bookworm!

Although I’m capturing a bigger picture of his development for his birthday infographic, for this blog post I’d like to share his bookish habits. And they are many.

• He has become a picky reader. He’s always been a picky eater, but the book opinions are a new development. He goes to the library with specific topics to look for: “I’d like a book about monkeys that’s a story, but not Curious George.” And, “I want a book with facts about turtles. Sea turtles.” For at-home reading times, I used to be able to select pretty much any book and he’d either enthusiastically approve, or at least go along with my choice. Now, I often hear “No, mommy, that one’s boring.” And “that one should go back to the library now.”
• He “adopts” a book as his favorite and becomes fast friends with it for long periods of time. (Yea, renewal limits are maxed out.) We cycle through these every few months and the topics and authors are varied. But, they are usually about a new topic he wants to learn about: scuba diving and musical instruments have been the latest. I’m learning a lot, too! Ha!

• He has started acting out storytime, displaying artwork from picture books with librarian flare: “Can you all see? See the giraffe? What’s he doing there?” He’ll pick up a book, read out the title, then open and begin “reading,” pausing to ask questions throughout. Where does he get this stuff from? 😉
• He has an astounding memory for book text. I was literally in (happy) tears last week when I realized that he had practically memorized Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin. This is an 8-minute audio book with complex vocbaulary (“quintet, octet, gleeful, bleating, valves, mournful, double-reeding, encore). He needed very little prompting. “That lazy clown, the big bassoon! He plays low down, we’re laughing soon. Here, Grumpy, get your place in line, and give us a nonet- that’s nine.” He doesn’t miss a word. And that’s just an excerpt from page 17.
• He just simply loves reading. Multiple multiple times a day I find him engrossed in a book. If I lose track of where he is in the house, he’s most likely curled up with a book. I find him spontaneously reading to his baby brother or to his stuffed animals. He asks guests in our home to read to him. He thinks the closet where I have books shelved is the most magical place in the house  (we do a book rotation since it’s just not wise to offer free access to 300 books at one time).

I’m so excited about the year of reading we have ahead!  I wonder what new topics we’ll learn about, what books we’ll memorize, what new authors we’ll discover! Here we come, our fourth year of reading!

Keep Reading!

Melissa