[blparent] Sparking an interest in reading?

[Jo Elizabeth Pinto]

Hi.  I'm wondering, particularly from the parents of older kids on the list, what you did to spark an interest in reading?  I've done the basics--Sarah has had dozens of books of her own since she was an infant, and I used to read to her all the time before she got too busy and active.  A lot of her books are in print and braille, so I read to her when she wants me to, and we talk about the pictures.  She usually gets a story or two at bedtime, and when she feels like it, I'll stop what I'm doing to read with her.  She has a great vocabulary and likes learning new words.  She'll often ask me what something means, like today she wanted to know what "opposite" was, so we talked about things that are opposite, like in and out, day and night, etc.  But she doesn't seem inclined to learn to read by herself at all.  I know her preschool has done activities with letters--she came home the other day with a foil tin in which she had planted grass seeds in the shape of her initials.  I thought that was a great idea, but she didn't care much about it, and the tin got knocked over before the seeds could grow.  She'll pretend to spell something now and then because when the adults around her spell words, she knows we're talking about something she's not supposed to understand, like going to the park or a gift she's going to get, and so on.  But she's not interested in pointing out letters, or sounding out words, and the last thing I want to do is push her and make a battle out of books because that will give reading the kiss of death.  I asked her the other day if she wanted to learn to read and she casually said no, Mommy and Daddy will do it.  I'd appreciate any ideas.

Thanks,
Jo Elizabeth

"How far you go in life depends on you being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant of the weak and the strong.  Because someday in life you will have been all of these."--George Washington Carver, 1864-1943, American scientist