Reading Corner Project

I used to be an avid reader (fictions, biographies), back then when smartphones did not exist, when I used to commute on public transport, and back then when I did not have to read Handy Manny before bedtime. I love reading, always have, still do a bit of reading although nowadays it's more of reading trash online (guilty: beautifulnara). 

Anyhooo, I want my kids to pick up the reading habit as well, because reading is good. Alright, it's not so much of "melentur buluh", the truth is, I HATE seeing them being too dependent on their gadgets. Kimi, once, told me that "Kimi sedang termenung tengok burung dekat luar" when I imposed a no-tab time for him. Ko bole termenung je nak? Do you understand what it means? I think he doesn't know what to do without his tab.

But nevermind. There’s still time to change that.

Inspired by some of the supermommies on Instagram, I started on a reading corner project for the house. A pretty little library sounds like an exciting project eh?

The first challenge is deciding on the right reading space. We shortlisted a few corners of the house; corners because there, the inevitable mess that will ensue from the reading-cum-play space can be quickly hidden. But then, after rounds of debates (read: arguments), we agreed that this space CANNOT be tucked away into any corners. It has to be a space where we ourselves don’t mind lepak-ing in. It has to be bright, it has to be where the kids are currently spending their time in. In spaces like that, where books are in front of their eyes, the books have a higher chance of being picked up. It doesn’t matter if they’re just flipping through, sooner or later they will start to read when they don’t have tabs to play with.

The second challenge is, preparing ourselves to deal with the mess that will happen from having this space. Ha. Penat oi balik rumah sepah-sepah! I recently discovered that I am a perfectionist (this surprised me, to be honest), so having books strewn in the house is not really acceptable. Thing is, the hubs is also a perfectionist baahahahaha, so we get easily stressed by a messy house.  

So having resolved the two challenges, last weekend, Ach made a reading corner for the kids in our living room. Right smack in the middle of the house.

Mess? What mess? Of course there will be mess! On the first day, the books survived on the shelve for 30 minutes before Hadi swiped them off onto the floor to which he squealed with a celebratory “Yeayyy!”. But later that night, both kids picked up their own books and started flipping through.  This morning, after breakfast, all three boys sat together reading a book about gardening. I could not be happier.

Yes yes, this is a posed picture.
We were just done with installing the picture ledge. As usual all stuff came from IKEA, and the carpet is from our RPI days.

  

30 minutes later

It’s only been a few days. I hope the excitement maintains over time. Some of the things that I think will work:

1. Rotating the books after a week
2. Add a variety of books – reading, coloring, sketch pads; and add a bucket of color pencils as well (husband please don’t scream)
3. Don’t give them the iPad (sangat penting)

So there you go. One project done. We still need to spruce up the space, some colourful frames maybe. Or cushions. Thanks to @mrskerol and @munirahpunye for being such inspirational supermommies!