As you can see, we aren't fully unpacked yet. In fact, there are probably 6 such cluttered areas around our home, still waiting to be organized. With the impending visit of my in-laws in 2 weeks, I guess I need to get to it....which I plan to work on as soon as I finish blogging (hey, if I can procrastinate another 10 minutes, then great!)
I do like our environment to be a bit more ordered, so this chaos is a little unsettling to me. I am reminding myself that it will all eventually get sorted out, and to just take one chunk at a time.
This is the spot my 3 year old just vacated a few minutes ago. My kids *love* books, nearly as much as their other toys!
This is just one of many book displays around our home. Sure, many of them start looking a little too "well loved" after a while. Yes, some books get ripped...and then repaired by me...and then ripped again (to eventually find their way into the trash). Most of the books, however, are treated with respect by our kids, and played with as they would play with any toy. I believe that if you keep books in easy reach and displayed prominently for kids, they WILL pick up those books and look through them! The next step, of course, is they'll start bringing books to you to read to them, and then eventually they'll start learning to recognize familiar words, and before they know it they're reading!
Our play room may still have unpacked boxes, but you'll notice we still managed to unpack lots of books!
p.s. All 3 of my children have been early readers. My oldest began recognizing words at age 2, my son at age 3, and my youngest (age 3) recognizes all her letters and numbers up to 20, and a few simple words. This has never been pushed, and has just been a very organic gravitation by all of my children towards books.
I guess now it's time to get back to unpacking!
I definitely agree on keeping books out! I also think that seeing you read is important, and not just reading to the kids :-) I find that when the books are spread about the house, my kids almost always grab a book and sit down quietly to look through them (they are 4 and 22 months). Whereas when I put them away, they can go days without looking for them - because they aren't visible to them. So I opt for leaving out books, and then putting away a lot of the plastic toy crap that we have laying about :-)
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