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Tonight
Tonight, on a whim, I started reading to Sebastian early. Rather than continue reading Doctor Dolittle's Garden where we had left off last night, I grabbed a copy of the Just-So Stories by Rudyard Kipling.
I'd never read them before, and even as a child I'd never heard them. My only knowledge of them was from some references in a couple of Heinlein books, as far as I can recall. But Kipling's Kim is one of my favorite books in the world, so sometime in the last few months I picked up a cheap copy of the Just-So Stories just in case. I looked at a few pages, and it seemed a little dated and icky - "Best Beloved"? - but for some reason I told Sebastian about the book tonight, and he was interested.
I sat on the couch, and he lay down next to me. I found it easier to read the stories than I had expected. And he loved them. I read the first two stories, and he wanted me to keep reading. Once he got upstairs and into bed, I started on a third, but he fell asleep after only a couple of pages. That has almost become an automatic reaction for him, I think, and so I'm going to try to spend more time reading to him in the living room, before he goes to bed.
I love reading to him. If I can only read a couple of pages to him every night...well, that won't be enough for me. Too soon, he'll be too old for me to read to sleep.
One more thought: it's strange to think of it, but I doubt that one in 100 American kids has ever so much as heard of the Just-So Stories, much less had them read to him or her.
I'd never read them before, and even as a child I'd never heard them. My only knowledge of them was from some references in a couple of Heinlein books, as far as I can recall. But Kipling's Kim is one of my favorite books in the world, so sometime in the last few months I picked up a cheap copy of the Just-So Stories just in case. I looked at a few pages, and it seemed a little dated and icky - "Best Beloved"? - but for some reason I told Sebastian about the book tonight, and he was interested.
I sat on the couch, and he lay down next to me. I found it easier to read the stories than I had expected. And he loved them. I read the first two stories, and he wanted me to keep reading. Once he got upstairs and into bed, I started on a third, but he fell asleep after only a couple of pages. That has almost become an automatic reaction for him, I think, and so I'm going to try to spend more time reading to him in the living room, before he goes to bed.
I love reading to him. If I can only read a couple of pages to him every night...well, that won't be enough for me. Too soon, he'll be too old for me to read to sleep.
One more thought: it's strange to think of it, but I doubt that one in 100 American kids has ever so much as heard of the Just-So Stories, much less had them read to him or her.
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My parents weren't big on reading to me when I was a kid either.... my mother was a high school dropout, my dad wasn't around and went from vocational high school into the Navy and then technical school and had never read the classics when in school. I was better educated than them when I was in high school (except for math there was nothing either could help me with... my dad had had lots of math to become a Machinist). I was a voracious reader, and was given access to the adult section of the library before I finished middle school because I had read everything our local branch library had in the kids section by the time I was in the 6th grade.
Reading is so vital and handled so poorly in the schools then and now. Vital concepts about reading and understanding content are missed in the educational system. I was lucky and thanks to a speech impediment and eye problems I got shuffled into specialized classes when I was in Middle School (Speed reading, note taking, expanded literature) that I gained a lot from that I otherwise would never had seen.
one more thing...