The brain is a muscle
It has been fascinating to see Drake develop as a reader over the less than 18 months he’s been alive. Over the past six months he has become more involved in reading all the time. If we hold out two books, he will imperiously push one away. Once we have finished reading a book, he will shut it, flip it over and return it to my hands, indicating that he wants to hear it all over again. When he’s done with however many times he wants to hear that book, he’ll slide off my lap, toddle to his shelf of the bookcase and return with another selection. His favorites shift and change. There are certain books that we haven’t read in months, and others that we suddenly see returning to the rotation. He has an extensive collection of board books, but over the last few months I’ve been supplementing those with paper picture books as well. When he first listens to a new book, especially a longer picture book, he doesn’t make it all the way through. He’ll bring the book over again and again throughout a day, and day after day. Over time (not even necessarily each time; it’s more gradual than that) he will listen to more words on each page, and listen to more pages out of the entire book. Yesterday he sat through more of Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel by Virginia Lee Burton than he ever yet had. Tonight he listened to nearly all of Bedtime for Francis by Russell Hoban, after which he insisted on two times through Come Along Daisy by Jane Simmons, followed by Goodnight, Moon by Margaret Wise Brown. We finished with Mike Mulligan, after which I spirited him into his bed before he could ask for another. It is clear that his mind is growing and stretching with each reading. It’s also clear that he wants this exercise; he brings the books to us again and again. While we have been guilty of occasionally “misplacing” certain books that we’d read past our point of tolerance, my husband and I almost always follow Drake’s lead, reading the books he wants as many times as he wants to hear them. Yes, occasionally it can be tedious. But really, truly, watching a person come into being as a reader? It is stunning.
February 14th, 2005 at 3:06 pm
this is amazing, GD! and you were concerned about his small verbal vocabulary…he’s just saving it up for his first manuscript! then you and G.Grod can retire and live off Drake’s bestsellers (or his job at ESPN as a football comentator…a new applicant for “Dream Job,” anyone?)