Personal Reading

I have a spot I like to read from, but that’s a non-mentionable place.

  Anytime we go camping, or a nice drive, or when I  just want to relax, I like to have a book of my own I’m reading.  Sometimes it’s a homeschooling book and when my brain hurts from that I like to have something that is just fiction/fun, etc. 

As much as I love to read to my kids and love to homeschool them, which takes alot of reading, I really need something just for me and reading is something that doesn’t cause me to have to leave the house for any reason:)

There’s an older series by Brock and Bodie Thoene I’ve enjoyed…I think it was the Zion Chronicles.  I lOVE MItford.  I also like Elizabeth Goudge, OOP and probably not on audio.

Meadowlark, none of us has enough time!  LOL  My youngest is 9 so I have more leeway than I used to.  However, even when mine were babies, we did plenty of reading aloud, too, and try to spend much time outside (one can READ outside too!) but reading to myself was so important to me, that I tried to sneak a few minutes here and there, of course my scripture time first, then anything–newpapers, books, magazines.  One day a second grade teacher visited me when my two oldest were preschoolers, and she “caught” me with my nose in a book.  She told me that this might be the single most important thing I could ever do for my kids–letting them SEE me read.  It’s hard sometimes to convince kids that something is important if they don’t see Mom and Dad doing it.  So that eased some of the guilt I felt.  In my home, two of my three kids were reading without any help from me from the time they were three.  I always joke that they did this in self-defense since dh and I read as often as we can, and they needed to learn, too, or be left out!  LOL  But really.  There is always so much to do.  I’m never going to get it ALL done anyway, so I set aside a time each afternoon when we all read for an hour.  So I have this time.  And then there is a lot of “wasted” time IMO when we do things–go to the doctor, wait in line at the bank, etc.  I redeem as much of that time for reading as I can.  I’ve gotten really good at reading in five-minute bites!  But it works–it’s good for my brain, which is starting to go gray along with my hair, and it is good for the kids to see that I value doing this-sometimes even over getting “one more thing” done. 

And then there is Sunday, blessed Sunday, when we deliberately cut out a lot of extraneous stuff–at our home, minimal chores, NO tv, walks outside but no outdoor play–that we can use for . . . READING!  My favorite day of the week.  (And of course NOT just because I get a little extra reading time!)

I wanted to mention a great source for audiobooks online –http://librivox.org/ .   The price is right – FREE – and there is great selection, a lot of great writers are in the public domain.  Endless entertainment!