What's up with the 2000 Texts Bit?

If you're just joining this tale, please read "What do you Mean I Can't Watch Sponge Bob!?" first.

When my husband, Chris, and I were kids we rode bikes. We invented games to play with our siblings and/or our friends. We climbed trees and we made forts. We DID stuff...AND we read books. Our experiences were a continent apart, but they were basically the same. Our childhoods are packed with great memories of doing fun things and this is the kind of childhood we've always wanted to give to our kids.

The kids. Our wonderful, fantastic, amazing kids. They like to do all those things too, but they have also been asking for video games for as long as we can remember. Chris and I discussed long ago that we were never going to buy a game system for our kids. We talked about how we feel game systems do nothing to promote intelligent interaction with others, physical activity, or really anything of any educational value. We weren't going to give our kids an opportunity to get hooked on video games because we wanted better for them.

Neither of us had such a thing growing up, so we figured our kids don't need it either. Making up games, playing in tree forts and interacting with others at the playground are all skills that encourage creativity and foster postitive social skills. For seven years we haven't budged and we haven't regretted it either.

However, we're starting to soften. We’re realizing that perhaps there are some positives to some video games. There are games with some educational value, and the hand/eye coordination they'd learn can't be beat. Heck, there are even games that incorporate some physical activity. It's not strenuous, but it’s certainly better than sitting like a lump on the sofa.

"OK, great", you say. "You're not crazy about video games, but what's up with the 2000 texts bit?", you ask. Well, I've titled this project, "The Tale of Two Thousand Texts" for a reason, and it has a lot to do with video games. We are, in fact, going to buy the kids a gaming system, but only AFTER they've read two thousand books.

At first the idea of using a game system as a reward to encourage the kids to read seemed quite counterintuitive. But then after discussing the parameters regarding exactly HOW the game system would be earned, we thought it was brilliant! This was when we decided on the target of 2000.

After they've read 2000 books between the two of them, reading will have become something they enjoy. It will no longer be a chore, but rather, second nature. We aren't worried that a game system will replace the love of reading they'll experience after they hit their target. They will have achieved that target BECAUSE they've enjoyed reading so much. I know they'll achieve this target because it's not so much that they have completely lost interest in reading. They just need some guidance to get back on track.

A love of reading is such a wonderful gift to give our children and we're confident once they've spent so much time with their noses in books, reading will be in integral part of their lives. We're confident they'll always be readers; whether there is a game system in the house or not.

So here we go!

What Do You Mean I Can't watch Sponge Bob?

It's day...eleventeen at home with the kids and we're all cooped up because it's -30 with a windchill of -44. We've been stuck inside for four days now and the school is closed due to the cold. Sigh. What to do? We've already baked every cookie in the 'hood (that's motherhood, by the way) and if I have to listen to one more incessant episode of Sponge Bob Square Pants, my husband will force me into a hockey helmet so I'll still have the capacity to cook supper when I'm through banging my head against the wall!

"That's IT! I've had enough of this mind melter! The TV is off for the rest of the day. Go and do something constructive. Build a craft...clean your room...go in the basement, just DO something other than sitting there on the couch watching TV." So I've gone off on my little tirade and now it begins....

"But, but, but, Taylor just got to watch HER show, so now it's MYYYYYYYY turn!!!"

"Jordan, if you don't turn that thing off RIGHT now, you won't watch it for three days."

"So I CAN'T watch Sponge Bob?"

My eye starts to twitch. What IS it about a seven year old that makes you want to run screaming up the driveway into the arms of freedom one minute, and then turns your heart into a quivering pile of gooey, sticky love the next? At this particular moment, however, I'm searching my memory for the last known location of my sneakers. For crying out loud, how many times do I have to say it? Holding on to the LAST nerve in my frazzled head (it's been four days now, remember?) I tell him TV time is over and he needs to do something else.

"Why don't you read a book?" I suggest. Well! you'd think I'd suggested he cut off his right arm!

"NOOOOOOOO! I HATE reading! I'm not doing it and there's nothing you can do to MAKE me!" he screams back at me.

Sigh. What happened? My little man used to love books. He would sit for hours in his little chair pulling books off the shelf and just lose himself in the colourful pictures. Before he started school, he genuinely loved books. I taught him to read by the age of four and he thoroughly enjoyed leafing through any book he could get his tiny hands on. My daughter was the same way, but thankfully still reads. She too learned by the time she was four and it's rare for a day to go by without seeing her with a book on her lap.

Jordan, my son, is 7 and his sister, Taylor, is 5. Somewhere along the line I feel like I've failed my son because he views reading as a chore; almost akin to punishment. I know that once I started to get busy with my consulting firm I assumed he'd always love to read; either on his own or with one of us. I took his natural curiosity and thirst for new things for granted and spent less and less time reading to him and his sister.

Without his Mom and Dad keeping up with a lifestyle where books really ARE wonderfully important, my son's interest waned. My husband and I were busier than ever and generally completely exhausted by the end of the day. I work from home and, regrettably, it has often been easier to just let the kids turn on the TV, than to put my computer away for awhile to do something with them.

So now on this frigid, blustery day the cold, hard truth hits me in the face like a frozen snowball...and it stings. If I don't steer my kids on a strong path of readership NOW while they're still young, they may never follow it on their own.

So what do I do?