A budding bookworm

We are big readers in our family. We have books all over the house and Christmases and Birthdays always involve a large stack of new books to add to our already large collection. Reading is one of my greatest pleasures and I have spent countless hours of my life curled up with a good book. I want so badly for my children to inherit this love of reading, and, so far so good, they both love books and story time.
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Tom has been wanting to read independently for some time and seems almost to be teaching himself! He constantly surprises me by reading words out to me that I may have told him once, weeks ago. Tom is a child who learns easily and rapidly when he is interested in something, so we thought that now would be a good time to introduce him to some first readers. You have to be very careful with Tom because if he thinks he is being taught, or is being led towards a certain goal, he will refuse to continue and run off. However, it is incredible what he will retain when we 'play' at reading and maths. Goodness knows how he will fare in a classroom situation, but at least we can give him a good start now.
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My mum started teaching me to read from a very young age. She started off by making some flashcards and used the Ladybird Key Words scheme. By the time I started school I could easily read all the usual books and was, frankly, a bit bored with what the school were giving me.
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(As an aside, the school apparently didn't believe my mum when she told them I could read, so I was bored and...ummm...somewhat disruptive when I first started. One day Mum went down the school and had me read a book to the teacher who was, apparently, somewhat surprised. I distinctly remember reading a book called "My House" aloud to my class and wondering why they all seemed so impressed. I just thought everyone my age could read!)
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Anyway, back to my own children! We were excited to discover that the Ladybird Key Words scheme is still available, so my Mum and Dad got some flashcards, the first few Peter and Jane books and a few early readers for Tom for his birthday. I was surprised to find that I still remember them nearly thirty years on.

Mum sat down with Tom and the books and the look on his face when he started to realise he could read some of the pages was precious. I loved watching my mum teach my son to read using the same books she used with me. I wonder if we looked like that 28 years ago.