In a article by Carol Hurst, two different children of the same age but different reading levels and reading backgrounds were asked to tell her about The Hungry Caterpillar (Eric Carle). This is the response:
“This is about a hungry caterpillar that ate a lot of stuff and turned into a butterfly. It is a nice story. I liked it.”
That’s not bad for a beginning second grader’s writing. He certainly gets his point across, but listen to the second child:
“This is a story that I’ve heard all my life. Probably they read it to me when I was a tiny baby. And I still like it. So does my mom.
It’s about a caterpillar that eats all kinds of food. Most of it is good for you, but it just gets more and more. I’d think he’d pop or at least have a stomach ache. Instead he turns into a butterfly and he has the colors of the food he ate in his wings.
My sister thinks that green leaf he ate on the last day made him change. I’m bigger and I know he was supposed to change. They all do.
It’s sort of magic. My teacher says there’s magic all around, like me turning from a baby to a kid.
Eric Carle’s pictures are neat. They are mostly cut and paste — collage — and when he uses tissue you see through the top one to the others. He’s written a huge pile of books. Very Quiet Cricket is special and ends with a surprise.”
This should be a wake up call to us parents. Reading is Fundamental and we are not even on the basic level of fundamentals. The fact that children are sponges and they want to learn, want to be stimulated, want to share the experiences of learning with us parents. We need to get busy, lets face it if we can cook dinner, catch up on the 500 emails that were due out yesterday, laundry and baths all from the same place and with the two hands we have - that is a victory. Most of us do this every day and go to bed wishing we had more time with our kids, to read, play, enjoy and be parents.
That is why online reading is such a great supplement to quiet time with our kids. While we are working online, our kids and be next to us reading, or being read to. Getting entertained by a great story, stimulated to read on their own and getting excited about books and the creative outlet that reading provides.
Nothing says that hot cocoa with mini marshmallows, the only blanket that can take away tears, mom or dad and a laptop is a bad thing. In fact, it can be a great chance to read a new story the second the moment allows.
