A Not So Typical Tuesday

A typical Tuesday afternoon for us this spring looks like this: pick up girls from school, eat a snack, change clothes for gymnastics, go the the public library to return books and check out new ones, gymnastics class, then home for bath, dinner and family time.  While this afternoon looked like it would be like any other Tuesday, there was one major difference that melted this momma's heart and made the teacher in me very proud.

Side note: Our girls have recently discovered the Elephant and Piggie series of books by Mo Willems.  I had heard of and read a couple of these books in the past based on the recommendation of my wonderful cousin Kelly Wiggains, but when I had tried to get my girls to read them before they weren't very interested.  However, I tried again a couple of weeks ago, and now they LOVE them.  They have discovered that these are books they can read and have fun with on their own. They have read a couple from the public library and even checked out one or two from their school library.

Well, today when we went to the public library I asked what books they wanted to check out.  On a typical visit to the library, they pick books from all over the children's section- some holiday, new books, picture books, a book from a favorite series, etc.  Today, they went straight to the W's and said, "We want an Elephant and Piggie book!"  So, they each picked one book, then another, then another- all Elephant and Piggie books!  They were so excited to go check them out and start reading;  they didn't even want to put them in our book bag.  They insisted on holding at least l of them.  For ease in getting to the car, I insisted we put most in the bag, but they could each carry one.  The moment they were buckled up, they both opened their books and started reading- each reading their own book out loud.  While this may have seemed a bit chaotic to some, it was music to my ears.  My babies are reading- on their own, for the fun of reading, with lots of inflection in their voices and comprehension of the story!!!  It brought tears to this momma's/ teacher's eyes.

Thank you, Mo Willems, for writing books that are easy yet fun to read.  Thank you for helping my girls find the joy in reading and helping them realize they CAN pick books off the shelf and read them on their own.  Thank you to our public library for providing the books to make my typical Tuesday not quite so typical.