Score one for competition!!!  Small person's first two book reports were short and sweet, and not-quite-to-the-point.  To keep her from feeling unfairly treated, I also wrote book reports on the two books I finished (Deaf Like Me and  Little Men).  Once she found out that my book reports were three pages each in the notebook, she quickly began to rewrite some of her book reports, than asked me slyly how many pages I had written.  She was unhappy to learn that I wrote six pages while she only wrote five, but I can bet that next time, she will have even more pages, and none of this was done by nagging her to write longer or even a lecture on details or the hamburger graphic organizer so loved my writing teachers everywhere!  And, I found I really enjoyed writing about the books I read.

We sat on the couch together after dinner and read our book reports to each other.  It was fun to hear her recite her little readings and it gave us some good quality time together, too!  Now, when she is in bed and I can have my one or two shows for the week, I find that I am actually looking forward to reading again so we can have more book reports next week!  Best of all, when we had finished biking, visiting friends, and playing dolls, I made her a snack of air-popped corn and she asked if I would read her more stories!  Normally, she would have been begging to watch TV and lose herself in the show.  Now, we listen to audio books at dinner and then I read her stories at snack time, plus more stories at bedtime!  She also has taken extra baths to make the time go by faster.  She has gotten quite creative in ways to spend her time.  I'm proud of my little muffin and am looking forward to another TV-free week!