I’m a reader.
I like books.
A used bookstore and that smell of old glue and yellowing pages? A slice of heaven.
So imagine my delight when we realized Miss Jill is an avid book lover.
For several years now, Jill has been completely enamored with books. Can’t find her? 99.9999999% of the time she can be found quietly perusing pages. She babbles “reading” the stories. She “hmmmmm’s” her way through the pages. She casually flips. She loves the quiet of it all.
During her initial assessments for her IEP, the school psychologist asked me what her favorite activity was.
With more than a little pride, I announced “Books. Reading. She loves books like her mama.”
“Hmmmm, that’s interesting. I wonder though, if the reason she loves books is because it’s something she is physically capable of playing with appropriately? Dolls and other toys may prove difficult for her to play with correctly…does she get frustrated with other toys?”
It had never once occurred to me that perhaps a part of Jill’s love of books was due to some of her physical difficulties…and that yes...books are one of the great equalizers for her. The way she looks at a book is the same way everyone else does.
If ever I had embraced her love of reading, you can be sure that it has been solidified always and forever in my heart, and our checkbook.
Books, books, all the time books.
And Girlfriend can’t get enough.
For Christmas, we bought her a LeapFrog Tag Reader
I wasn’t sure what to expect, and honestly, I thought it would be too hard for her. I thought it just read the words when you touched them…but it’s so much more than that.
Sure, it reads the words on the page…but it also has hundreds (thousands?) of other sounds…point at a chicken and it clucks…point at Merida and that Scottish accent fills the room….point at a trombone and a song starts playing.
Cinderella sings…birds tweet….Dori forgets her name…over and over again.
It really is 100 times cooler of a toy than I had expected.
And it brings my girl so much joy.
All. day. long. if I let her.
And it brings this mama so much joy to see her play in her own way…without being frustrated by a body that doesn’t often cooperate with her.
But reading? Level playing field.
And that is worth its weight in gold, my friends. GOLD.
At her last IEP, the discussion of a tablet device came up…something that might help her with communicating. Normally, the idea of buying a young child their own several hundred dollar tablet would seem insane to me.
But now…with a child with special needs…and seeing how traditional toys…the wooden toys of old…the toys that don’t require batteries…the ones I insist on for my others…it doesn’t seem nearly so crazy. After all, those toys aren’t appropriate for her. It would be cruel to force her to only have things that would frustrate and anger.
Jill ADORES her Reader. It’s her toy. The others must ask permission before they can play with it. We pack it on vacation. It’s her THING.
So, when I was given the opportunity to write a sponsored post about the upcoming LeapPad Ultra, I was more than happy to do so. It’s easy. We are a LeapFrog family. Jill made us that way.
And who knows…maybe that LeapPad Ultra will find itself under the tree for next Christmas…?
Shhhh….don’t tell.
The LeapPad Ultra isn’t available in stores yet, but for now, you can enter to win your own LeapPad Ultra! That’s pretty awesome, right?
Visit the LeapPad Sweeps site and enter the required information. Upon entering the sweepstakes, you may invite up to five friends to participate. If they are chosen to win a LeapPad Ultra, you’ll win one too!
I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.
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So awesome that Jilly likes to read! My brother reads disney occasionally. This year he was sitting at our work office, picked up trade magazine which are super boring, flipped through the pages and pointed out the things he recognized, burgers, pizzas, bananas, it was adorable.
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Miss A loves her reader and this system looks fantastic too. I heart reading. During our trip to Eureka, I fell in love with a corner bookstore that my inlaws frequent. Sigh.
Cheers,
Caryl
So sweet! A love of reading is a precious thing.
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LOVE it! Let that girl read, read, read!!!