Castle Zoo Book Club

Each inhabitant of this zoo is an avid reader. The zoo is littered with books, papers, magazines, and printouts that we have read, are reading or are waiting to read.

Crockett reads books and journals on aviation, navies, trains, birds and Australia. Boo is really starting to get into reading by herself and loves short stories about animals, as well as books about snakes, sharks and pigs. Lolly loves to read novels about animals and dragons. As for me, I read anything....novels, non-fiction, magazines, how to books, and at the moment books about autism.

Our school is big on reading with your children. This not only includes listening to them read, but reading to them and reading with them. For both Boo and Lolly this is a major part of their homework. This has brought about a new nightly routine in the zoo.

Come 7pm feeding time is over in the zoo and the remote control for the TV is handed over to Crockett. The girls and I go snuggle into mum and dads bed and the fun starts.

Boo brings home enough library books so that we get a new story each night. Sometimes she reads her book to Lolly and I...sometimes I read it to both of them...but more often than not we read Boos books as a team. Boo will read some parts, I'll read others...and Lolly (as we have recently discovered) does amazing "voices" for all the characters in the stories. We discuss the books, we laugh, and we all feel a lot better for it.

Lolly brings home readers that she usually reads by herself in the last 30 minutes before her "lights out" time. She has started bringing home one library book a week for me to read to her. I love this time...she was starting to think that she was to big to be read to...but her teachers this year are pushing the fact that you are never too old to be read to. We have just finished reading a Tim Winton book called "Blueback" which has opened up discussions about pollution, whaling, illegal fishing activities, urban development, global warming and the effects these activities have on our oceans.

I love this time with the girls. Its a time to just relax and be, its a time to bond and share, a time to grow closer through a shared love. This is one nightly routine that I won't be in a hurry to let go of!