Right Now We're Reading Pictures

Interesting development in our read-alouds is that Jackson is getting interested in more complex books, but he really doesn't have the attention span for me reading the exact text. So we're reading pictures. I flip through the book in question--we're doing a lot of Angus and original-flavor Curious George right now--and narrate what's happening in the pictures, which is a much swifter and more direct approach to "reading" the book than my usual would-be-dramatic reading aloud of each and every word on the page. I've noticed that if we do this a few times, familiarizing him with a book, and if his mood is right, Jackson becomes much more patient with longer text. I can still do regular read-alouds during mealtime, when I have a captive audience, but this is an interesting new addition to our couch reading routine.