It's Friday night. I light the candles and hit the piano music. My husband finishes bathtime and tucks Jeff, our 4-year-old, into bed. We pop popcorn, get beverages, and settle ourselves on the futon--surrounded by our daughters, Shannon (8) and Sarah (5).
It's reading party time, and to get an invitation, you must meet one criteria: you must be able to read a book by yourself. Jeff's working on it--he wants to stay up with his sisters on weekends. So far, he can read "the," "a," "off," "on" and "stop." Unfortunately, I haven't found any books with only those words. So we're gradually working through Hop on Pop, with Jeff reading one new word per outing. Plus, he gets a "family cuddle book" before he has to head to bed.
We settle into our books. I'm reading a linguistics text for my upcoming course of study. Chris is reading a military history reference book. Shannon's reading the third Harry Potter (and loving it). Sarah's reading any easy-read chapter book we throw at her--tonight it's The Frog Prince and a picture book of her choice. We munch popcorn. We drink soda. Somebody sneaks upstairs to sneak candy for everybody. Pages rustle. Kids cuddle.
By 9:30, Sarah has fallen asleep nestled next to me. Shannon is still engrossed in the world of Hogwarts. Chris and I look at eachother and sigh.
Other families have Movie Nights. We tried that, however, each of us likes a different type of movie. Personally, I can't stand Sponge Bob. Barbie bores me to tears. Shoot-em-ups … blech (plus, Jeff can't watch "beat-up shows," so they're pretty much out). This way everybody gets to read what they want--and we get to spend time together as a family. It's a win-win.
Now to work on that "hop" word …
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