Reading

It's always amusing to me how Lukas will stop WHATEVER he is doing when I start reading a book to Natalie and/or Konrad...Lukas always wants to read the book too, even if it's just a simple baby book. Carried further, there is not a much more tragic event for Lukas than to be denied a bedtime story. Tragic, as in way worse than ice cream melting.

Today I was reading to Konrad when he woke up before Natalie, and Lukas stopped his craft project (his favorite thing to do, but apparently second to reading) to come over and join in. I was surprised that in addition to "Owl Babies", Lukas has now memorized "Bear Snores On", which was given to Konrad by my friend Brenda. Lukas recited the entire book as I turned the pages, with very little prompting from me. I was surprised because Lukas may have heard "Owl Babies" five hundred times, but he has heard "Bear Snores On" less than fifty times, and it's even longer.

This picture shows Lukas reading "Time For Bed" to Natalie, but he can't remember it very well. We read that book to him A LOT the first two years of his life, but somehow it got misplaced and we only recently started reading it again. I find it interesting how the brain works: repetition is key, but the book also needs to be reviewed recently.

The only problem is that, even though Lukas CAN read, he doesn't think he can read a book unless he has it memorized (not reading, but reciting). I think it's because he's so used to looking at the pictures on a page, he doesn't think to look at the words on the page of a familiar book.