Maybe it's because I have a lot of homeschool connections, but as the public school year winds to a close, the "Make sure they're reading" madness for the summer seems to kick up all around social mediaville. (It dies off a little in July and early August, then kicks back into high gear again with the start of the public school year.)
One of my favorites (eyeroll) is the "Your kids will read if they see you reading!" (or words to that effect) memes.
Lies. I'm telling you they are LIES.
In line with "If you love math and talk about how awesome it is, your kids will love math too!" (Which I actually never see, but the theory should follow. Except that I adore algebra and eldest now despises it and it makes my heart sad to hear him diss the world's most amazing form of mathematical expression. But there we are. Insult to injury? The kid loves history. I mean really? REALLY? History? Gag.)
Sufficient to say, I am not raising future STEM geniuses.
Or readers, for that matter.
Eldest can read. But I have to bribe him to do it. This summer, reading is directly tied to time on the Xbox. Because yes, I'm apparently that mom. But my goodness, books are amazing and it breaks my heart that he doesn't agree. Almost as much as his math attitude kills me. Maybe they're tied. Point being: bribery is in full play.
Youngest can sort of read? I'm not even bribing him. It's just required. As in, nothing fun happens tomorrow unless you read to me for thirty minutes today. There have been some days wherein he's tried to call my bluff and say that it'd be all right if he had to stay in his room for the whole day and I had to quickly come up with some amazing thing that he'd be missing out on.
That kid. I tell you.
Well really, both of them.
It makes me stronger?
Anyway, you can do your best and, shockingly, those darn kids are going to turn into their own people with their own personalities. Who knew?
It used to be truer, I think. Certainly I learned my very bookish habits from my parents. But despite the fact that they grew up seeing me spend a vast amount of time in my library with my nose between the pages, none of my kids really reads very much for pleasure at all. (I have heard words such as "dinosaur" and "antique" bandied about behind my back.) The Box in all its manifestations is just too much of a lure these days.
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