literary minded

Until recently, Gwennie has resisted our gentle efforts to encourage her to read for herself. Partially because of the curriculum we've adopted, and partially because she gets a lot of book time from other sources (our reading aloud, her books on mp3), we haven't pressed her too much. It's more important for us that she enjoy books than that we impose any kind of milestone. Knowing her, we figured that when she wanted to read, she'd get around to it. (Like her Grandmother with her Teen Age Tales, maybe.)

So we've kept up our rhythm of having her read a few pages from Frog and Toad are Friends (note: I am not disparaging the oeuvre of Arnold Lobel) day by day, but we haven't placed much pressure on her. But in the last week or two, she has decided that she is going to read Harry Potter, and she's been working through the first book, reading aloud. She's made it through the setup and challenges like Hagrid's dialogue, and is now somewhere around 60 pages in. It's fun to see her accelerating every day as she gains the ability to negotiate some of the difficult words and gains more vocabulary. It's also quite charming to hear her giggle her way through her favorite moments.