Bookaholics are Us

In addition to the obvious fun that is barn mucking and stacking bales in the hay loft, homesteading with my three littles involves a lot of homeschooling, dishes, and laundry.  It also seems that I am pretty much always searching for a book that is due soon or making one of my many, many trips to the public library.  For our family, the library ties with garbage pick up as our most frequently used public service.

My children are voracious readers.  They come by it honestly.  Both Ian and I are readers.  Our boys read to themselves, they read to each other, and we read to them.  They write out their favourite stories to make their "own" books.  Liam reads proficiently in French and English and enjoys books in both languages equally.  Seamus is very close to reading in English.  He can sound out the easy words and has begun to recognize the words we see most frequently.  I have found my kids reading all over the house: in their bedrooms, the living room, on the kitchen floor, under the beds, sitting on the heater vent, in the basement, and oddly enough - even in the pantry.  No wonder I find library books everywhere!

We borrow close to 60 books per week from the library and read them all by week's end.  By this point I have accepted that I am the crazy lady who shows up at the library with an extra large clothes hamper to hold her books.  The librarians all know me and I bet they giggle at me behind their masks.  That's okay, I can take it - if that's what it takes inspire my kids' love of reading.  It's working so far!