The One About the 1,000 Book Challenge

    The boys and I have decided that we are going to keep track of all the books we read together and see how long it takes us to reach 1,000 books.  A fellow speech pathologist whom I work with has been keeping track of every book she has read to her baby since he was born.  Yes, we SLPs are very anal and like to track everything. I wish I had kept track all these years, because I would be so proud of the number of books we have read.  Now, I am not exactly sure how to track the 2,000 times we read Clap Your Hands, Goodnight Moon, and The Big Red Barn.  Does each read-through count as 1, or should I count each book separately?  :)  Okay, focus on the big picture.  Starting now, we will log each book we read one time, regardless of how many times we read it. 
     I need to jump up on my soap box and vent about something for a little bit while I am on the topic of early literacy.  I was in a preschool last week evaluating a little kiddo who stutters, and asked the child to recite the nursery rhyme Jack and Jill.  Many times, people who stutter are very fluent if they are reciting something that is familiar to them, like a nursery rhyme or the Pledge of Allegiance.  Anyway, this child looked at me like I was crazy.  She didn't know Jack and Jill.  So I asked several other kids to say Jack and Jill, Humpty Dumpty, etc..  I don't think a single child in the room could recite an entire nursery rhyme.  How sad is that!!  Why aren't parents doing nursery rhymes with their children anymore?  And if they aren't teaching them nursery rhymes are they even reading stories to them?  Nursery rhymes were the first form of literature that I exposed my children to.  I bet Callum could sing Rub A Dub Dub and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star right now.  He recognizes nursery rhymes, that I am sure of.  Nursery rhymes have always been something I have done with the boys.  Of course, my Mom is big on nursery rhymes and taught them to us at a very young age.  I have a cassette tape of me when I was 2 years old reciting many, many nursery rhymes...and also singing the theme to Love Boat and The Brady Bunch, but that isn't the point.  ha ha   Back to the topic:  nursery rhymes are very important to early literacy.  They teach rhyming words, the sing-song prosody of language, vocabulary, etc..  Not to mention that they are just fun to say.  Now I am not a perfect Mom by any means.  We don't read books every single night.  Things come up, we are late getting to bed, or I am just too tired sometimes....but we read several nights a week.  And we DO recite nursery rhymes in this house!   Parents--bring back the nursery rhymes!!  I am stepping down from my soap box.