the girl loves to read

Most of you know Jordan...and you know she loves to read. It's truly one of the passions in her life. Once she has her nose in a book you will have to physically wave signal flags in front of her to get her attention. It's great to see her enjoying a book and be excited about it. I know I am getting total payback for my bookwormish characteristics as a child. I can often remember my mother asking me to please take a break from the books when I came to the dinner table. One summer I was supposed to be painting an iron fence in my parent's front yard. Each morning I would secretly take a book with me and as often as possible would read behind a tree since they practically have woods in their front yard. I know it drove my parents crazy, but reading under a tree in the middle of summer seemed much nicer than sanding and painting a fence. Eventually they had to hire someone to paint the fence. (I'm sure Dave pulled some tricks like that too since he's a reader also.)

So, back to Jordan. The kid can read a big book easily in a day. She sat down to read the second Harry Potter book the Saturday before Thanksgiving. By nightfall she was done -- and yes, she did play outside during the day also. (Lest you worry about the child.) Jordan's teacher is w-o-n-d-e-r-f-u-l this year. I love her to death. To help everyone in the class read more she initiated a reading log. Very common during these elementary years. The requirement is to read 20 minutes a day and then log it with a 3-5 sentance summary on a special paper. Since Jordan is a reader the worst problem I have is making sure that log is kept up to date. (For that I am thankful.) Still, I have a beef with the teacher's comments from the log that was dated October 31 - November 1. Halloween was a freebie day on homework. Tuesday Jordan read a 150 page book. Wednesday Jordan read a 100 page book. On Thursday Jordan honestly logged that she read the Disney Catalog. Since she had read so much earlier in the week I decided that the log was just fine -- after all, as a parent you have to decide which battles to fight. This one wasn't even a worry for me. Here's what she wrote:

Disney Catalog - A small book with toys and clothing. It has snowglobes and special pins, too. It also has reviews. [Granted not the summary of the century, but complete.]

And here is what Mrs. Brown wrote:
"Do you think this is a good book to write a summary about?" [Though the paper got it's usual "OK" with a check mark.]

Are you laughing yet? When I pointed it out to Jordan she just shrugged her shoulders and said, "You know, you can read a long time and find out interesting things from a catalog. You don't just have to read from a book."

That's my girl. ;-)