Reading is Rundamental

Princess daughter passed a big milestone last weekend. She celebrated having "read" 60 books this summer with an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen. We invited neighbor friends to make it a little more fun, and frankly, so 60 pieces of ice cream cake weren't calling hubby and my names from the freezer every day.

So she didn't actually read all of them, but she showed word recognition, even read a few sentences, in each of them. And she did sit down, pay attention to each page as we read to her and answer questions about the story following each book. That's quite a feat because, if you know Princess daughter, you know she doesn't sit with a book.

Ever since she could walk, she has had this habit of "running and reading" for which my husband coined the phrase "reading is rundamental" (which is why he's employed at an ad agency, I guess). Basically, as she runs full-speed across the room, she tells the story (as she sees it) on each page. Then she stops at one end of her lap, turns the page, and goes back from where she came "reading" the next page. The medium doesn't matter - I've seen her do this with magazines, brochures with interesting photos, sales flyers, even an underwear catologue.

It's an odd behavior, but one that gives her plenty of exercise, so my chief complaint is the pattern she's digging into the carpet and the wear-and-tear on the chairs at either end that receive the full-force brunt of the reading. She's even become aware of this activity by name, and requests time to do it each day. I think she also uses it as a way to process the day's events, as I often hear threads of conversations, recollection of events or regurtitation of scoldings (that one's always fun to hear thrown back in your face!). So I learn alot, too. Just not sure how this behavior will play out in the classroom once school starts...