Harry Potter rocks it again

Liz and I are HUGE Harry Potter fans. My mom read the first and second book at the recommendation of her friend Harriet. She gave them to me to read and I have been hooked ever since. I think Liz was in second or third grade when I started reading them to her. We spent the whole school year reading the four books that were out at the time. She wrote every book report she could get away with about a Harry Potter book. The biggest reason being that Liz didn't read. She loved for me to read to her and to listen to books on tape but she did not have any desire or interest in reading herself. She complained of headaches so I took her to get glasses last year. Still no reading. I knew she could read. According to the testing done while we were still fighting the school system she actually had college level reading skills.

I am a reader. I love books and I love to read. Letting go of Liz being a reader was hard for me. My mom and sister and I all all readers. My oldest niece is a reader. I have read to Liz since she would sit still long enough. I had every Dr Seuss book memorized. When she was 5 or 6 I started reading chapter books to her. I started with Stuart Little and went from there. I read to her every night and we both loved it. I would read to her until I was hoarse or she fell asleep whichever came first. She loved books and stories but she would not read and it broke my heart.

When we started unschooling I heard so many stories of kids who didn't read in school who would discover a passion and start reading like mad. So I waited.....and waited.....and waited. in the meantime I read everything I could about unschooling. I read books and I read posts on groups and I read blogs. And I thought about why I value reading as a means of entertainment and new ideas and often escape. Liz complained about me hiding in my room to read and that I didn't pay attention to her. She was jealous of my reading. So I stopped for awhile. I sat with her while she watched TV and played on the computer. We went places together and talked and explored this new life we were creating for ourselves. I left her alone to think and rest. I started to value what she was doing not for it's "educational" value but because she liked it. I was de-schooling because I needed it so much more than she did.

It's been a year and a half since Liz left school. She finished Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire yesterday. All 734 pages of it. She's been reading here and there for awhile and I hadn't really noticed it that much. She doesn't like library books because they smell funny but she likes to sit in the bookstore and read. She's been picking up books that we have at the house and reading them. I think The Teenage Liberation Handbook was the first book she actually read the whole way through but she didn't tell me about it until later when we were talking about something else.

My daughter is a reader. She communicates through IM and texting constantly. She reads for information and now she reads for pleasure. It makes me happy but I don't own it. I didn't "make" her a reader with my good parenting or fabulous talent. It doesn't make her a better daughter or a more interesting person. I don't love her more. She is reading more and I am reading less. I still read for pleasure but I am working very hard on not reading to escape. I am trying to make sure Liz knows she is not less important to me or less interesting than a book. There will be plenty of years in my life left to read. I only have a few more years with my girl before she grows up. Now if I could only give up reality TV.