Reading... for fun??

We have officially been on Christmas break now for 4 days.  I guess old habits die hard.  Either that, or we must actually enjoy reading together.  We have so loved Eloise Jarvis McGraw's books that we've read as part of our Sonlight curriculum including Mara, Daughter of the Nile, The Golden Goblet, Master Cornhill, and Moccasin Trail, that I thought we might enjoy another of her books, The Moorchild.  We started it on our first day off from school and my oldest two children beg me to read it daily.  At this rate we'll finish it before Christmas.  We're also enjoying reading our Advent adventure, Bartholomew's Passage each day.  I can't tell you how much I love that reading-aloud has become a valued tradition in our home.

According to Jim Trelease in The Read-aloud Handbook, not only is reading-aloud a social activity (and television an anti-social one), but reading-aloud also requires more thinking than does watching television.  For instance, listening to a book requires "constructing mental images of the scene described", as well as allowing for time to stop and ponder the story and even ask questions.

Monk has also been reading The Fellowship of the Ring, the first in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, in his spare time.  He realizes now that although movies have great special effects, they are seriously lacking in character development.  And lest you think there are no video games being played around here, I must admit that those are being enjoyed, as well.  For the holidays the kids have a 2 hr plug-in allowance per day.  I even caught some of our family playing Battleship around the fire last night.  How have you been enjoying your break from school?  Reading any books together, just for fun?