The Reading Ruffolos

What, in heaven’s name. is The Reading Ruffolos?

At the outset, allow me to say that our last name is Ruffolo and we are crazy about reading. Totally. Crazy. Hence the name of this blog, The Reading Ruffolos.

Having said, er, typed those words, let me also tell you that I am doing this blog to constantly motivate myself to look for resources, ways and means to be the best for my children. You see, I am a mother to fraternal twins, Nicholas Louis and Antoinette Elena (or you can call them, Nick and Toni). The twins will be turning six months old by January 1 (yes, the first day of 2014) and already I am in full gear mode to be their very first teacher. Yes, I am big on firsts.

: Nicholas Louis at five months and 28 days

: Antoinette Elena at five months and 28 days.

I am a journalist and a social development worker by profession and my career has put me in a special place, where I constantly look for innovations and new wave approaches in how we implement things in this world.

I am big on firsts so naturally, I do want to be the twins’ FIRST teacher. But I do not settle in just being the first. I want to be the best. I want to be the twins’ BEST teacher. This is a very tall order I am imposing on myself because that would mean learning as much as I can in almost all aspects of my children’s well-being: physical, mental, social, emotional.

God knows, how much energy and patience I needed to harness to raise Mr. Mellow and Screaming Mimi (yes, those are alternative names for Nick and Toni) in their first six months outside my womb. So I am challenging myself to do this task on top of juggling school work, professional involvements, learning two more languages and making sure that my family is nourished with food and the much-needed tender, loving care only a Mother can give.

: Nick and Toni during their baptism last September 29, 2013 at the Holy Family Parish.

I had little doubt about maintaining this blog on a weekly basis so I told my husband, Jeff, about this. He told me to be realistic on my goals with a specific reminder on not to pressure myself to update this page. With his support, I became confident that I can pull this through. I believe I can. I had a little doubt about having twins as firstborns but look what happened (we got a girl and a boy!) so I guess, a little doubt is healthy when you are starting a blog.

Let it be known that I am NOT an expert in reading. I am involve in several projects and initiatives related to literacy development but I cannot give you tips to encourage your toddler(s) to start grabbing copies of The Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew Mysteries in the nearby bookstores. Well, perhaps, I can try. But let me be honest. I do NOT have the degree or special trainings to back up my claims. However, I am in constant search for knowledge and skills upgrade to be better at what I do and that is spreading the love of reading through storytelling. I have years of experience in dealing with children as young as a one-year old boy at the Inayawan dumpsite in Cebu City and a woman who is 88 years old and lives in a mountain barangay called Magsaysay in the fourth-class city of Guihulngan in Negros Oriental.

: Philippine Daily Inquirer’s Read-along Session with 200 children living in tents after a 6.9 magnitude earthquake shook Guihulngan, Negros Oriental on February 2012.

: Storytelling session with volunteer storytellers and reading advocate group in the mountain barangay of Tabunan, Cebu City last August 2013.

One thing is certain about this blog. I will not scrimp on stories and anecdotes on successes and shortfalls in my quest to make reading palatable to the young ones and the young once. The Reading Ruffolos will be full of learnings from reading materials and trainings (hopefully!) I will have the privilege to have access to. The Reading Ruffolos is a place where we can also share tips on how to further spread the love of reading in this oblate-spheroid planet. This blog may feature storytelling sessions I will be doing in whatever country, city, town or village my happy feet will bring me. Also, let me inform you that this blog will also indulge you with updates of the twins’ journey into the world of reading and storytelling. I plan to maintain this blog until the day I cannot type (I originally typed “until the day I die” but that reads kind of morbid so I deleted that). Well, that may be exaggerated but you get my point.

: Reading in Shanghai circa 2010.

I am smiling at the thought of a day in the faraway future when my 30-year-old children will be reading this blog while I, a 57-year-old world explorer, will be in the Philippines or Vanuatu or Burkina Faso still active in volunteering for storytelling sessions.

In this blog, my twins will be guinea pigs of sorts. I will be applying what I learn from my readings, trainings and your sharings in their reading journey. I am starting this with much excitement and a little bit of fear.

The Reading Ruffolos is not here to invade your social media inboxes begging you to like or follow this page. What I will ask you though is to share any entry in this blog to parents, students, young professionals, reading advocates or to any person you think would benefit from it. By doing that, we can start another reading revolution. A generation of readers who are able to shape insightful opinions and make informed choices, because they are wide readers aware of what is happening in the world.

I invite you then to let The Reading Ruffolos be your companion in bringing forth the love of reading to the world!