A few weeks ago after school was out and my daughter was running up to the front door, backpack bouncing on her back, she was yelling in excitement, “Mom! Mom! We get to buy some books from the magazine!”
After 5 years of trying my best to naturally facilitate a love for reading and books in her, and failing, this moment felt amazing. It felt like I was winning the battle for a short time.
If you’re familiar at all with ordering books from a magazine, then you know exactly what she was referring to- the Scholastic Book Order, a magazine that goes home with students once a month full of books, educational kits, and sometimes toys, all for purchase. These magazines for book orders started in schools in the 1940s and are incredibly popular among many. It brought me back to my childhood days to see my daughter open it up and start looking through the book options!
But the reason I felt such pride and accomplishment was because she said the phrase, “we get to buy books.”
From the time she was born, I did everything the blogs and articles and parenting books tell you to do to facilitate a love of reading in kids. We constantly had books out and available for her. We had books that were black and white with high contrasting colors, as well as books with plenty of bright colors. We had books that were interactive, books that were just for reading, and everything inbetween. They were on her level to see, easily accessible, and fun to read. I never forced her to pick up books, never forced her to finish books (as much as it drove me crazy to skip around pages and not completely finish it!), and overall did my best to make it a happy, fun, and inviting environment.
And still, she just never loved books.
So when she came running up to the front door yelling in excitement that we get to order books, I was over the moon! This was the first time I had seen her so enthralled with literature. We sat on the couch and flipped through the pages together, noticing all of the fun books as well as the books with beloved tv characters. We see you, Paw Patrol! Which was just another fun way to see her light up about books, she was so excited that she could choose a book with Chase and Skye.
In the end, she picked a Grumpycorn book with a unicorn plushie that was included, and I’m fairly certain she chose it for only the plushie, but it was progress. We also ordered some sight word books and the classic, There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly.
It made me reazlie what an incredible resource the Scholastic book order is for kids. There’s those that love reading and can look through the book order to pick out all of the books they’ve already read as well as the ones they still want to read. And then there’s children like mine, that may not be as excited about books. But bringing home a magazine to order from and seeing books with familiar characters is just what they need to spark an excitement and love for reading.
So thank you, Scholastic books, for being another great resource for me in instilling a love and appreciation for books in my child.
