Our Reading Journey

I have now had too many experiences of seeing internet commenters completely destroy an article/author online for whatever reason (they didn’t understand it, they didn’t agree with it, they wanted to cause drama, they are sitting behind a computer screen and forget that the author is a real person and not just another computer, etc.). It happened to me in February when I posted on a very popular mom site and I got a little bit too emotional about it. So, unfortunately, for the moment, I feel I need to give a disclaimer before everything I post, at least until I feel comfortable again.

Disclaimer:  I don’t give my son a bath every day. I don’t fight with him to eat his vegetables. I sometimes give in to what he wants if he throws a tantrum in Target. I have the television on far too much when he’s home. We eat food off the floor in my house and I let him lick rocks outside. He is growing up in a non-traditional family situation that some people might not understand or agree with. There are many things I didn’t/don’t do the “right” way. But I do read to him every day. This is an explanation of why I do that, not a judgment on those who don’t.

In my pocket: a book

I grew up in a reading, writing, and storytelling home. I don’t remember a time when my mom didn’t have a stack of books next to her bed, her summer conquests ready to be devoured. My parents spent weekend mornings reading through sections of the New York Times and then folding up or passing along each section as they finished it. My sister and I spent every evening listening to chapters of The Little Prince or stories from The People Could Fly. Or, my dad would pull out an old typewriter and “type” as he weaved us a tale and acted it out with our stuffed animals. It’s safe to say that we all read, and we read a lot.

I also literally pay my bills by teaching young people to read every day.        Reading is important to me.

My reading journey with Kingston began the day I first met him. I say the day I first met him and not the day he was born because there were 30 agonizing hours between those two events. When Kingston was born via emergency c-section quite unexpectedly at 32 weeks, I didn’t have a bag packed or any of my things with me. My mom went home after my surgery with a list of things I needed.

Included on that list: contact solution, phone charger, hair ties, leave-in conditioner, underwear, pajama pants, robe, and at least two picture books. I knew that within those first few days I would begin reading to him.

When a baby is born premature and in the NICU, one of the absolute most important things to help them grow and develop is what they call kangaroo care. So, starting from 30 hours after his birth, my job was to pump milk for him and kangaroo him as much as I could. I would perch myself in an arm chair next to his incubator, place him on my bare chest inside my shirt, and just talk, sing, and read to him. For 28 days I read him stories that he couldn’t understand and talked to him about pictures that he couldn’t see. Most of the time he was asleep but I read with expression, gave the characters voices, laughed at the funny parts, and even confided in him when I thought a book was pointless (and then didn’t bring that one the next day).

Once Kingston got home I continued to read to him every day, and, at 15 months, he is a reader. He knows how to read at 15 months?!? No, of course not, he can’t even talk! But he is a reader. He can hold a book, listen to stories, turn pages, look at the pictures, and sometimes babble as he “reads”. He is a reader, in a 15 month old way. I asked myself this morning, why do you read to him every day? What is he getting out of it? What can a mini toddler know and understand about reading now that he didn’t 15 months ago?

Without the pressure of actually having to learn to read, what can a very young child know as a tiny reader?

For my own sake, I made a list:

-Kingston knows that reading and listening to stories is pleasurable, shown by the fact that he constantly brings books to me and plops down in my lap

-He knows that books can be enjoyed many times, evident when he shows the sign for “more” every time I finish the Duck and Goose Dance Party book

-He knows that many different people can read to you as he is regularly read to by me, his dad, both of my parents, and a babysitter (even by a voice on the stereo when I play a book on CD)

-He knows that books are to be read and are different from toys, which are to be played with (or thrown around, depending on his mood)

-He knows that you can listen to books sitting, standing, or even dancing (especially when I sing a rhyming book to him)

(You can even read wearing an elephant costume)

-He knows that many voices can be used when reading, and he laughs when he thinks a voice is funny

-He knows how to hold a book and turn pages

-He knows that some books have special parts to touch (touch and feel books) or to open (lift the flap books), or even have pictures that pop out at you (pop up books)

-He has heard words in books that he may not have otherwise heard yet in his life. For example, the word hare in the book Guess How Much I Love You, or the words cha cha, tango, and waltz in the book Giraffes Can’t Dance

-He has seen books with hardly any color (Blueberries for Sal, Harold and the Purple Crayon, Olivia, Not a Box), rhyming books (Bear Snores On, Whose Knees Are These?), books with a lesson (Hey Little Ant, William’s Doll), long stories (Mirandy and Brother Wind, The Color of Home), alphabet and number books, board books and paper books, different versions of the same story (Goodnight Moon, Goodnight Gorilla, Goodnight NYC), many books by Ezra Jack Keats, Mo Willems, and Oliver Jeffers, and even a wordless book that I pulled off the shelf the other day and then kicked myself because I didn’t feel like making up a story at the moment (mom’s get tired too!)

-He knows that books can be enjoyed in most places, including (but not limited to): his bedroom, my bedroom, the living room, the bathtub (they have tub books!), his stroller, the park, an Amtrak train, an airplane, and anyone’s house he visits.

-He also knows some silly things like books can be pulled off a shelf over and over again and stepped on or that they sometimes make a loud noise when you drop them.

(From the NICU to our couch, this same book has been read many times over the past 15 months)

These are all things that he knows/has learned just from being exposed to various types of books, in various places, by various people, on a constant basis. I am consciously raising Kingston in a reading-rich home. I love reading and Kingston loves reading and that’s all I really need at the moment in terms of his literacy development. But, I am amazed by him every day and proud of what he knows. It’s amazing how much a crying, tantrum throwing little person can know about reading (and many other topics/ideas) before they even how to talk. I feel no pressure to teach him letters or sounds or words (he signs about 9 signs since he doesn’t say any words yet but has the need to communicate). Just incorporating reading into our every day lives makes it easy to look forward to continuing our reading journey together.

(Next step, becoming a writer! Haha)