My Little Bookworm

These videos will only be interesting to Brian and I, so please dont torture yourself by watching them, unless you LOVE Dr. Seuss's ABC, or the If You Give A... series... because all we are doing is reading them, that's right, boring, but good to document.

Mr. Michael is a reader, no a bookworm. He loves books (he also loves Super Why but we arent going down that road at the moment). He loves us to read to him, to read to himself, or just to pull them out and put them back (though not this option as much). He goes through phases of his favorite books, for awhile it was one about trucks, and then one about dinosaurs, but lately the favorites, in addition to the standbys of "Good Night Owl" and "Owl Babies" (which yes I did get him for Christmas in the event that someone else eventually wants to check them out from the library) are the "If You Give A... series and Dr. Seuss's ABC. Let's just say I have most of these books memorized. If he wakes up in the middle of the night (screaming) his first request, after Daddy, is ABC, and if that request isnt met he is willing to settle for "Owly!". To say I dont need light to "read" Dr. Seuss's ABC might be the understatement of the month (seriously, Big A, little a, what begins with A? Aunt Annie's alligator... A.a.A).

A couple of weeks ago I heard a story on the News Hour (NPR yes) about how pediatricians are starting to evaluate developmental progress by giving a child a book and watching how they interact with it. They say that what a child does with a book from ages 18months-5 years is a good indicator of their physical, cognitive, and emotional development. One of the things the researchers were doing is giving families one book per well child visit from ages 6 months-5 years, resulting in a total of 10 books given over the course of the intervention. The children that were given the books were found to perform better in kindergarten. The offices that were giving out books also had people reading in the waiting room, they modeled behavior for the parents because in many of the cases the pediatricians offices selected to participate in the intervention served populations with limited english proficiency and low literacy rates (in any language). One of the reasons the pediatricans offices were chosen as a place to do the intervention was because most parents regardless of english proficiency or socioeconomic status will visit the pediatrican, and because parents visit so often (ear infections, colds, vaccinations) they generally develop a relationship of trust with the healthcare provider, so when told to encourage reading and given a book, the parents are more likely to follow the instructions given in that setting than in another one, not to mention the wider population that is reached. Whew, that was a lot of boring information (and very long run on sentences) unless you happen to be a public health major in which case you were fascinated and going to go download the podcast.

Anyway I heard that story and I was ecstatic, if one of the best things we can do for Michael's development all around is reading we are on the right track. He knows how to hold a book, turn the pages, picks out objects he knows, pretends to read the book, and understands (I think) that the book generally tells a story in a somewhat linear fashion. I am thrilled. But then again I am a reader, though my recent participation in a Gone with the Wind book club may suggest otherwise (FYI gone with the wind is an awesome book, that I will finish and now I have trouble limiting myself to three chapters a night!). Whoa! back to this topic. He is a reader, I am thrilled. And how did I spend my morning? By 10am we had read 11 separate books, some more than once, some more than twice, but at least 11 different ones. He is learning to pay attention through the whole book, or I am learning to read faster, we are reading books that tell stories instead of just one word per page... he is going to be set for reading when he gets to kindergarten... math, well we might need to let Daddy step in on that one, but reading, this kid is going to be a smarty pants little bookworm.