My Little Reader

Jackson has always loved reading.  When he was in my belly Arnold would read to him and from the time he was born, we would have always read before bed, among other times throughout the day, and he was always so attentive.  When he was about 6 months old and was beginning to manipulate things, he started reading books by himself.  We got these awesome books called Indestructibles, that are tear proof, water proof, pretty much anything baby proof picture books.  Jackson would open these books up, and just study the pictures.  He would look at them for a minute or so and then turn the page.  Then, when he figured out how to point, he would point to pictures in the books.

(Don't mind the hair.  We were going through a phase...)

After a few months of the Indestructibles, Jackson started to become more interested in board books.  He quickly learned how to turn the pages and learned "Can you turn the page?" when we asked him.  When Jack started crawling he would pick up a book, crawl over with it, and hand it to us to read.  When he starting signing "more" he would sign "more" after a book was read to him so we would read it again.  He could sit there while we read the same book again and again and again.

Right now Jackson has a few particular books he really enjoys, including the Skippyjon Jones board books, a set of books called "Boats!", "Helicopters!" and "Trucks!", "Good Night Chicago", "Hugs and Kisses", and any book by Sandra Boynton.  And within each of those books, he has a favorite page.  So now he hands us a book, we try to quickly read the text in each page before he turns it, and then when he gets to his favorite page, he would stop, look at the page intently and point to the pictures he likes.  It is very funny and really interesting.

Yesterday I was reading to Jackson and I decided to see what he would do if I started reading his book upside down.  While the book was upside down, I read the title, opened to the first page, and read that, and then Jackson took the book out of my hands, turned it right side up, and gave it back to me to continue reading.  I did this a few other times, just to make sure it wasn't a fluke, and he turned to book right side up each time.  He as probably thinking "Mom!  What are you doing?  This isn't right!  Don't you know how to read?  Let me show you how."  We took a video of it that night:

Before I know it he's going to be reading to me!