before K came along and rocked my word, i was an elementary school teacher... while i loved that job, being a momma is something that is a much higher calling for my soul... so i left the classroom behind for awhile...
nevertheless, i still have a teacher-y mind...and i have a passion for children's lit. after i graduated w/ my bachelors degree, i really wanted to work for a children's book publisher...but that just hasn't happened (yet?)...
as a teacher, i saw my share of voracious readers and readers who struggled... studies show that children who are raised in homes with a variety of written literature (books, magazines, newspapers, etc.) tend to be better readers... long before i became aware of this fact, i wanted any child that we had to be in a home filled with the art of writing... for years before K was even a thought, i was buying books for "a future child." her bookshelf is full and we have more books waiting in the wings in boxes...
it warms my heart to see K "reading" whenever she can get her little hands on a book... i love how she listens when you read to her... usually, she's very quiet as we read (or when she reads), so i'm not always sure what is going on in her mind as she hears or looks at the books...
we usually read books while she has a diaper change... they keep her attention and keep her still for the amount of time that it takes to get clean pants on her... her most favorite book right now is about colors... and while i'm not sure she gathers the concept of colors just yet, she LOVES the pictures in the book... each time we look at the book, she turns to a page (her favorites are blue, green, multicolor, and brown), and she points to the pictures with a "mmm" sound... she locks her eyes on mine until i tell her what is in the picture...
if i'm not paying attention at that exact moment, she continues to stare until i respond to her request for the picture's name. and, it's not uncommon for her to point to the pictures on the page several times...it's almost as if she's testing me to be sure that i'm really telling her the name of what we are seeing...
hair...teddy bear...chocolate...pony...
zebra...penguins...macaw...ball...
frog...leaf...
jeans...blueberries...towel...eyes...
we do this for about 5 to 10 minutes during each diaper change...
yesterday, i decided to switch things up on her...
instead of hearing "mmm," as she points, i asked her to show me the page with one of the above said items...
again, eye contact...
and then she began turning the pages... when she found what she was asked, she'd pause and point and make eye contact again...
amazing...
i think she gets an A... :)
2 comments:
We have that same book that she's reading in that photo -- about "Baby Things That Go." Luke certainly isn't yet to where he'll sit and listen to an entire story, but he's certainly making progress. He's starting to bring certain books to me over and over to look at the pictures and read. It's quite cute. He prefers to sit on the floor in front of me and have the books read that way (as opposed to on our laps). I think it's because I take him to "Toddler Story Time" at our local library. Therefore, he hears books in that same way.
She most definitely gets an A+! Go Little K!
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