Melynda Laurent

I need some ideas for including the little ones, specifically when i
am reading to, with or discussing a book with odd. They want to be
near us, but they are too little to be actually involved (unlike when
we are doing art or writing or what ever- I can guide them then) but
when odd really wants to talk about literature I am stuck for some reason-
any ideas here? (It could be very obvious- I am 33 weeks Pg with #4
and ssm to have lost my abillty to think somedays LOL)
Melynda
dd 7, dd 3.5, ds 22 mo, edd 4/07

plaidpanties666

--- In [email protected], "Melynda Laurent"
<melyndalaurent@...> wrote:
>
> I need some ideas for including the little ones, specifically when i
> am reading to, with or discussing a book with odd.

Can they watch a movie with headphones while y'all sit next to them to
read? Can you hold the book with one hand and play Candyland or
something with the other? Or can the 7yo play with the littles while
you read to all of them?

As far as "discussing literature" can y'all do that while cleaning or
doing laundry or something? What do you do when your 7yo wants to chat
about something *besides* literature? Talking about books doesn't have
to be any different than that.

---Meredith (Mo 5, Ray 13)

Laurie

Hi Melynda - I'm 32wks pg with #4 so we have a lot in common. LOL I
miss my brain sooooo much! LOL

As far as your question goes - we have always included the youngers in
the conversations around here. Obviously they'll interject with
things that sound like they're coming from a 3yr old (or whatever) but
I think it's important that they listen and feel welcome into the
conversation.

As far as reading stories goes...I typically read different stories
based on their 'level' during the day but DH reads a book to the
oldest 6.5DS just before bed. 4DD (her bday was today) has been going
in to listen to the his stories for months. They've read all through
the Narnia series a couple times, Charlotte's Web...some smaller books
here and there and now they're doing Lord Of The Rings. She takes a
couple of quiet toys and listens to the story while she plays. I'm
not sure that it matters if she catches the story and conversation -
she's hearing the rhythm of speech, increasing vocabulary and just
plain being included, which is probably more important at 3-4yrs than
comprehension of the story at hand. She does know that she needs to
be quiet or she's not welcome to stay. She can pick a different story
for herself but she rarely, if ever, does. She can tell me more about
the storyline than I thought she would be able to...and surprises me
with "what does xxxxx mean?" the next day. (Of course, to prove me
wrong as children often do, she just came downstairs in the middle of
the story with a sad face, "Daddy's reading the end of the chapter and
I don't want to listen to it because I thought there were gonna be bad
guys to fight but there aren't any." lol)

My youngest will be 2 next month and she is still on her own story
schedule but I'm sure it won't be long before she's welcomed into the
family story time with the big kids before bedtime.

Anyway, those are my .02...from one brain-dead preggo to another. LOL
;)

Laurie

--- In [email protected], "Melynda Laurent"
<melyndalaurent@...> wrote:
>
> I need some ideas for including the little ones, specifically when i
> am reading to, with or discussing a book with odd. (It could be
very obvious- I am 33 weeks Pg with #4
> and ssm to have lost my abillty to think somedays LOL)
> Melynda
> dd 7, dd 3.5, ds 22 mo, edd 4/07
>