Reading Rainbow, the show that brought reading to life for 26 years, is over.

Why? A big part has to do with a shift from showing children how wonderful reading can be to teaching them the mechanics of spelling and phonics. Oh, joy.

Much of this began under the previous president's No Child Left Behind Act. (Name names? Of course not.) Funding was moved from programs that got children excited about reading to programs that "start from the beginning."

Excuse me? It's being suggested that identifying letters and their corresponding sounds is the first step?

Bull.

We start with motivation. We read to children at the earliest age possible, sometimes even when they're still in the womb.

We read aloud because we are instilling in them a love of language. We want them to hear the inflections in our voices, the pauses, the nuances that cannot be taught.

We read with little ones on our laps and let them delight in the creativity of picture book illustrations. We help them unknowingly and naturally pick up new vocabulary.

We read the same books over and over because they are not only mesmerized by the words, but are memorizing them. They want to hear them again and again so they can learn them. They want to do what the grown-ups do: READ!

Enthusiasm is first. When children WANT to read, they are then eager for the HOW. That's when we give them the tools. When they hunger for the knowledge, they soak up what we teach. That's when we know that children are developmentally ready for the next step. But that does not mean we stop reading to them. That part continues.

We read because we are sharing a part of ourselves, the part that says we love them enough to give them this gift.