We got a note from the BoyChild’s teacher shortly after school started.

It was entitled “A Letter From The Teacher.” And it was a nice two page letter telling us a little about her, what the kids were going to do and what to expect. One of those things was “homework.”

Have I mentioned that he’s in kindergarten?

When the homework packet came home, it was a little sad.

Reading. Part of their assignment was to read. Not every night. Four nights a week. And I think there was a 10 minute requirement in there too. And finally, report back what was read.

Let’s see. Absent some extraordinary circumstances we read every single night. Our evenings aren’t complete unless we read to the BoyChild or he reads to us.

This is our evening routine after we eat dinner.

• Bath
• Put on underwear or jammies
• Take medicine
• Take vitamins
• Brush teeth
• Read

It’s part of our routine. And the reading, at 30 minutes or more, is the longest part.

We’ve read (several times) the Nicholas series of books by René Goscinny and Jean-Jacques Sempé. There’s Nicholas, Nicholas Again and Nicholas On Vacation. I see that a new one is out which we will need to get, Nicholas and the Gang.

Side Rant: Don’t be fooled by the publishers tactics of renaming the books. Nicholas on Holiday appears to be the same book as Nicholas On Vacation but they don’t tell you it is the same book. It is a different color than Nichols on Vacation. That is sucky. End rant.

We’ve read the first 18 or 20 of the Magic Tree House series of books. Jack and Anne were a regular part of our nightly routine for a month or more as we read a book every two or three days.

For whatever reason, we’ve given up on Mary Pope Osborne and are now reading, and listening to on tape, the Geronimo Stilton series of books. Geronimo is a mouse who does all kinds of fun stuff with his sister and cousin.

We’ve also gotten some books, recommended by the Kumon director, for him to read to us. For three nights now we’ve been regaled by the antics of a Cat who likes to sit on things. It’s a very simple book that the BoyChild can read because it repeats the main words over and over again and has pictures for the words he doesn’t know. It’s a little tedious, and not as interesting as Geronimo Stilton or the Magic Tree House, but the BoyChild loves that he can read it himself and I love to see him so proud of himself.

The remainder of the homework packet isn’t quite as gloomy.

They have a writing assignment; in cursive and in block letters.

They are studying the letter M this week and are suppose to draw pictures of things that begin with the letter M.

Today for Show and Tell the BoyChild took Macaroons because in my fuzzy state this morning, it was the only thing I could think of that we had on-hand that began with the letter M. And the added bonus is that they are edible!

But the reading thing seemed kind of sad. I don’t know where I would be if we didn’t have reading in our house.

So. What are you, or what did you, read to your kids when they were young?

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