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Welcome to familywisdom.com, a website dedicated to informing and inspiring couples and families. Each week you will find a new article, story or essay about parenting, marriage or life. Suggestions for articles and questions to Ellen Terich are welcome. You can contact her at e.terich1@verizon.net |
NEW WORLDS FOR SEAN AND MADDIE 2007-03-26 At the Miller house yesterday, six year old Sean surprised Grampy and I by bringing out the book "Green Eggs and Ham" and slowly and methodically reading the entire book to us. Sean has been mastering lists of words ever since he started kindergarten, but even his mother and father did not realize he could read an entire book until they walked into his bedroom the night before and found him reading "Green Eggs and Ham" to his three year old sister Grace. I was so proud of Sean's accomplishment, and it was clear Sean was proud of himself. He has truly reached a milestone, one that will enrich his life in ways he can't yet imagine. A whole new world is now opening up to him, a world of science and nature, fact and fiction, adventure and mystery, people and places, mathematics and history, and every possible collection of human knowledge and work of imagination that has ever been written. It's interesting that we mark developmental milestones like crawling, walking and talking, but pay less attention to the milestone of reading. None of the baby books I kept for my four children had a place to record "Reading of first book," yet reaching that milestone is vitally important to one's future success and even happiness. My maternal grandmother knew that. Widowed at a young age, and left alone to care for five children, she was asked if she ever got lonely. "Not as long as I have a book to read," was her reply. My oldest son Terry learned to read when he was just three. He loved watching "Sesame Street" and "Electric Company" and it was these programs that taught him to read and prompted his lifelong love of reading. As a long time manager of a book store, he is surrounded by books, not just at work, but also at home where his collection has grown thanks to his employee discount. Soon he will return to school to get a teaching credential so he can transfer his love of literature to high school students. Sean has an extensive book collection as well, thanks to his parents, grandparents, and aunts and uncles who love searching for a new title that Sean does not have. His parents have taken the time every night to read from one or more of these volumes. Soon, however, Sean, will be reading them himself, and perhaps entertaining his young sisters with his new skill. In the meantime, Sean's sixteen month old sister Maddie is also developing a new skill. She is starting to talk, adding new words to her vocabulary each day. Yesterday I pointed to the tulips on the table and asked her if she knew what they were. She very matter-of- factly said "flower," a word she had never said before, according to her mother. And when her daddy scooped her up and ran after her brother and sister in a game of chase, complete with shrieks and giggles, she shouted "running, running" over and over. The skills of reading and talking are the building blocks of human communication. Talking is the tool to help us speak to those around us so that we can express our wishes, meet our needs, offer comfort and assistance, and resolve problems with others. And when our own ideas are not equal to the task, we can read the words of others and find solutions to many of life's dilemmas in books. While today Sean reads "Green Eggs and Ham," in a few years he may be reading the words of Shakespeare or Milton or Dostoevsky and absorbing their timeless wisdom. And little Maddie, who today uses words to prompt her father to run through the house, will someday use words to stand up for herself, to scold, comfort, praise and encourage. And someday soon, she might even say the words that warm my heart, the same words I love hearing from her brother and sister: "I love you Grammy." |