I realized the other day that when I was reading to my son, he’d kind of just sit there and hang out. He wouldn’t really react to what was going on, he was just looking.

Then we got this new book, Bear Snores On, and I started making funny voices for the characters (when I say funny, I mean talking in a British accent. It’s just about the only impersonation I can do). When the Bear woke up, I’d make all sorts of grumbly, cranky, angry noises I imagine a bear would make if he were woken up from his hibernation (hope I didn’t ruin the book for you).

Now, every time I make the noises, he makes them along with me. Which got me to thinking, shouldn’t he be doing this with all his books? He loves to read, but it seems like we were missing out on so much more fun.

So I pulled out an ABC book with lots of pictures. I started asking him where the apple was, where the butterfly was, where the cat was, and so on and so forth.

The first few times, nothing. But imagine my surprise when I asked him where the butterfly was. He pointed and said “butter.” I was floored.

So now I try to make reading as much a two-way, fun activity as possible. It’s much better to explore and imagine things when you’ve got a fun playmate to do it with along the way.