1000

A picture might be worth a thousand words, but this t-shirt is worth a thousand books.

We took part in a program at the library called 1000 Books Before Kindergarten, which is exactly what  it sounds like. We kept a log of the books we read with Colter, getting a sticker or coloring page for every 100 books. When we reached 1000, he got a t-shirt. It took us exactly six months, starting on October 31 and filling in the last book on April 30.



(Can I just say it drives me nuts that two out of the 1000 book titles are written in blue pen? What was I thinking? I should just rid the house of blue pens.)



We definitely read more that weren't recorded in that six month span, but if 1000 is about average for six months, that means we've probably read well over 5000 books in his lifetime. (I'd venture a guess that about 1000 of those would be Curious George.) It was within the rules to write down the same book every time it was read, as repetition builds language skills. That's good because our 1000 books probably has more like 300 titles listed.

It makes me so happy to be raising a little bookworm. I hope he continues to love to read all through his life.

And instead of wondering what to do with the book log now that it's filled up, I have the great pleasure of filing it away in his memory box.

Oh, and in case you are wondering about Elliott and reading, we are working our way through Anna Karenina. Just kidding. We are getting into a routine of reading two books before each nap and bedtime, and sometimes he lays on the bed with Colter for his nap and bedtime stories. So he's getting plenty of reading in, but we haven't started a book log for him. Is it wrong that I don't want to keep track of another 1000 books? Curse of being the second child, I suppose. (And I'm a second child, so I know.)

Anybody read something good lately? Something that doesn't start with, "George was a good little monkey, and always very curious…"?