Thanks Grinity. DS has said he doesn't like to read "pages with too many words," so maybe it's an eye thing. Or a level of interest thing. I don't know. We're in a strange world right now where DS commonly chooses (for us to read to him) Dr. Seuss' Bartholomew & The Oobleck or other long Seuss books, Jan Brett books, Magic School House, Geronimo Stilton, and Mr. Men books. (He picks the Oobleck one because he knows DH and I are sooooo sick of it!) And I've waited his whole life (so very long, wink, wink) to read The Hobbit to him, so I read the first chapter of that the other day and he loved it. Last summer, he was in love with the Magic Tree House series, and that was all we were allowed to read until we were finished with all of them. I keep searching for new books that will get him excited like that again (back then he offered to read all the titles), but I guess I should just back off. smile maybe i'll pull out magic tree house again. (i did order some moomintroll books on ebay though...)

I love your ideas, esp. Ghost and audiobooks. I'll have to try those. We do make up a lot of silly songs throughout the day. We do worksheets sometimes too, and educ. CD-rom games (although lately he is completely obseesed with tower defense computer games, which i am starting to feel like i need to limit. But it's kind of fun to hear him spout off about the intricate details of the game whenever he finds an adult who will listen.)

sorry. this got long and rambling. Thank you for your advice.