Appreciation of Reading

Well who would have guessed it? As soon as the half term was over, it was full on again with the teaching role and this blog lay neglected, tucked in a corner of my mind, desperately trying to battle its way forward but weighed down under lesson planning and marking. Before anyone wants to say anything about the holidays that teachers get, I still worked everyday, I just had a bit of time in the evening to do something for me.  Easter is already looking very full of marking.  Typically I get 5-6 hours sleep a night and still am not on top of anything in the job or my home and feel I am always neglecting my own two children.

Quite frankly, I found myself feeling incredibly resentful that I was left with no time for my reading and could not  go to the book club I was going to join as I had not been able to read the book.  This meant I missed out on meeting the author and having those nagging questions answered.

I then read a quote about appreciating the gift of reading; it asked you to imagine life without it.  This made me think and think hard. I suddenly realised how much I am still reading.  I still read to both my children even though the eldest is 11 and a very competent reader.  We are reading the Lord of the Rings trilogy a few pages at a time and I am often taken aback by the descriptions it contains.  Utter poetical beauty.  I am also reading yet another Jacqueline Wilson number with my 8 year old daughter (this is the third on the trot by the same author!).


On top of this, I am teaching Of Mice and Men and A View from the Bridge, have just finished teaching Lord of the Flies, am reading Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde with another class and will shortly be reading another novel as yet undecided with a Year 7 class.  They may not be my choices and are mostly literature I have read time and time again but I should recognise this privilege.


My own daughter struggles with reading as does the occasional high school student and I see how difficult life can be for them.  I must be more appreciative of those special times I get to read to others and of the precious minutes I have for my own reading, even if I tend to fall asleep exhausted after only a few lines!