Works for Me Wednesday

We love the library.  I've always enjoyed reading.  Picking up a book to learn something new or escape into another work is one of my favorite activities.  I'm continually amazed by the amount of information we have available at our disposal.  If you're interested in something, there's probably about a book out there to tell you about, how to do it, the history of it, how other people have experienced it or how to avoid it.

Funny enough, I married a man who never liked to read.  For him, reading was torture growing up.  Faced with the choice of reading a book for pleasure or having a tooth extracted, he would have been hard pressed to make a decision.  He avoided books like the plague.

So we decided early on that we wanted to instill a love of reading in our children.  One of our consistent prayers is that the kids would love to read.  And although Daddy started out reluctant, he would read simply so that our kids would see him reading.  Over time he has come to enjoy reading himself.

One of the cornerstones of our week is attending story time at the library.  Our consistency ebbs and flows with other activities in our lives, but whenever the topic of story arises, our son is eager go jump in the car and go.  This is a great activity for many reasons.  Number one, it gives me a break to get out of the house with the kids and meet other moms.  I have made plans many times to meet other ladies there and enjoy a hour of so with the kids, being entertained by someone other than "mom."  Number two, it exposes my kids to a variety of topics and books that I wouldn't have ever picked up.  Once a month, a local author reads to the kids and her books are fantastic.  Sadly though, they aren't anything that I would have picked up on my own.  So I've been very happy to "discover" her literary style.  And finally, it's free.  Every mom, frugal or not, loves "free."  It's something we can do together without taking out a small loan.  I love the resource of our library.  It works for us.

For more Works for Me ideas, check out www. rocksinmydryer.typepad.net.  But beware; it's addictive.