The Reading Rattler

At the height of our exposure our 4 youngest children were unable to read. Colin and Reagan got reading glasses to help. But blurry vision, headaches, and dizziness kept them far away from books. School, therefore, became impossible and I wondered if the day would ever come when I would find their imaginations captured by their favorite authors.

The day has come. Colin has 30 pages left in the book Crispin. Brandon is excited about Poppy. Kaitlyn just finished the story of Karana, the girl who lived alone for years on the Island of the Blue Dolphins, and Reagan is on page 390 in the Count of Monte Cristo. Kristen is reading Great Expectations for her online English class. Colin and Reagan no longer need their reading glasses.

Ancient Chinese medicine says that the eyes are intricately connected to the liver.

The kids have been so excited about reading they wanted to resurrect our tradition of a summer reading chart. For every 20 minutes of reading they fill in a square and move toward the grand prize. (There's a water park in Phoenix we've been eyeing.) We award small prizes along the way. This year instead of a slurpee, it's 2 Odwalla juices. This year we're doing the "Reading Rattler."

The kids are reading again. I just colored in another square as we move closer toward our grand prize of recovered lives.