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I'm fascinated by this essay because a lot of the activities described by the author are what we have been doing with our 21-month old son. Not through any conc
by kohanz 11y ago
I'm fascinated by this essay because a lot of the activities described by the author are what we have been doing with our 21-month old son. Not through any concerted plan, but mostly because my wife and I love to read and that love for books has been passed on to our son. I wouldn't say he "reads" yet and he's not able to recite the full alphabet yet (we read a lot of books, but so far I'm not into drilling him with flash cards and he's not on any screens yet), but by comparison to his (daycare) peers, his vocabulary and verbalization skills are significantly ahead and I believe these activities are connected.
One of the most interesting developments from my point of view is that while my son most enjoys sitting beside us to read a book together, lately he also enjoys "reading" alone. To help us buy an extra half hour of sleep-in (he's not a great sleeper AND an early riser) in the morning we will come to his crib when he's calling for us and put a pile of board books in there. He will then sit there for about half an hour (those of you with toddlers will know that this kind of attention span is no small feat) and flip through them quietly. By the time he's done, all of the books have been "read", multiple times. Of course he's not "reading" the words, but I do believe he's reading the books and in his mind reciting the words that he remembers from when we read them to him.
To me, the above is just one example of how he keeps proving to me that there is a lot more going on in the minds of our little ones than we often give them credit for. I believe we (or at least myself) have a tendency to underestimate the intelligence and capacity for learning that these little people have, because we judge them based on their outputs, which lag behind their actual learning by quite a bit.
- magic_beans 11y agoSome of my earliest memories as a child revolve around "reading". I was deeply drawn to one book in particular, a beautifully illustrated version of the Twelve Dancing Princesses. I remember being overwhelmed by the many words, and would instead look at the pictures, over and over, not necessarily trying to read the words, but hearing them echoed in my head from when my mother read them to me. And then one day, as if by nowhere, I could read the words. I so clearly remember that sense of discovery. It was such a delicious feeling. I STILL remember the story and the pictures from that book to this day.
- kohanz 11y agoThank you for sharing this. Recently my wife and I have both lamented that although this is a lovely stage of his life that we are thoroughly enjoying, we are somewhat saddened by the thought that he will not remember much or any of it (I certainly don't have any concrete memories from this early age). Perhaps this is me again not giving the young brain enough credit. The fact that you do remember something like this is heartening for me.
- magic_beans 11y agoSome of my earliest memories as a child revolve around "reading". I was deeply drawn to one book in particular, a beautifully illustrated version of the Twelve Dancing Princesses. I remember being overwhelmed by the many words, and would instead look at the pictures, over and over, not necessarily trying to read the words, but hearing them echoed in my head from when my mother read them to me. And then one day, as if by nowhere, I could read the words. I so clearly remember that sense of discovery. It was such a delicious feeling. I STILL remember the story and the pictures from that book to this day.