For the Love of Reading

Eva has a very cute habit of "reading" books to herself. It started around 11 or 12 months, and she began to do her reading routine regularly at about 13 months old. She will open her books, turn the pages, point to characters and letters on the page, and chatter away as if she can read the story outloud to herself. She doesn't always turn every page, and often she will get almost to the end of a book and then flip through the pages backwards and start reading again somehere near the front, but she really does almost have the hang of how to read! (Oh, yeah, minus the ability to actually talk, read, or translate letters into words - minor details, really.)

I used to have to catch her in the act of reading outloud, or she would stop if she saw me, so this first video is her reading in her room with me around the corner in the hallway filming her - it's from maybe two weeks ago. I can often hear her little voice in her room when she is on her own, reading and entertaining herself, just like this video clip shows:



Now she is more comfortable reading outloud to herself even with me around, so the second video is us out on the deck together and I am sitting next to her, and was taken just a couple of days ago. She is a little sick in this video, so near the end you will see her, um, mood swing. :)



It has definitely been cool to see her enjoy being read to a she gets older, and now to see her reading on her own like this! I hope that her interest keeps developing into a true love of reading as she gets older and can, you know, actually read!