Read-a-Thon to the Rescue

PROBLEM: The boys woke up extremely tired and irritable. They had several days in a row with trips to the pool in the hot, hot sun that we followed up with late, late nights. These days I am putting the boys in bed at their regular time, but I have been much more lenient about the actual going-to-sleep part. I enjoy hearing them giggle and talk and bond! In the summer I feel I can indulge them more than in the school year. My mom was the same way.

SOLUTION: Declare a Read-a-Thon! Stay inside! Let their bodies take a rest without wasting a whole day watching TV or Movies! Make it fun! I still wanted them to get out at least once, so we started the day with a trip to the library (where they can't run, and have to still be quiet... see where I'm going? The whole day, even our trips out, were designed to help them rest!) to have a fresh basket of reading.

Jack loaded up on books about spiders, sharks and got a few new chapter books. Alaster found his regular penguin books and also a section with some good early readers that he was excited about. (He's doing so great!) I was finally able to pick up Bink and Gollie HERE that I had so very much been looking forward to reading with the boys (it didn't disappoint!) and a few other picks that looked fun. We also made a quick stop at the grocery store for some regular and novelty snacks which you will see in a moment.

While I got things unloaded the boys started right in:

Admittedly I had some dishes to do, so I popped in a book on CD while I put Truman down for his morning nap and finished those up. The boys vegged, drank juice boxes (A treat usually reserved for Grama's house!) and listened. (Does listening to a book on CD still count as better for them than a movie? I think so...)

Before long they were requesting the snacks we had picked up. We started with this tray:

When they finished up that tray (I insisted that the fruit and veg cups be finished first) and I was done with the dishes, it was this trays turn to come out:

From there we took turns reading to each other. Here's Alaster reading us a book about big cats:

We loved cozying up getting lost in some good books, and the boys got the rest that they so desperately needed.

Truman took the longest nap in the history of his life so this little read-a-thon lasted about 3 1/2 hours. Not bad! Combine that with our trip to the library/grocery store and it was basically a full day.

Happy reading folks! Read anything good lately that I should put on my 'for our next read-a-thon," list?