Journey to a New Life

 

This is a blog inspired by Anna Brix Thomsen's blog: The Good News and the Bad News of Why Learning Cannot be Forced.   Be sure to subscribe to her blog to keep up to date with regular insightful posts on learning and the education system!

One of the things you hear over and over as a parent, is how important reading to your child is. My mother had brought some children's books over when she visited a few months after Cesar's birth, and I couldn't wait to start reading to him. I always loved having books read to me as a child, and once I could read on my own it was my favourite passtime.

Yet when I started reading to Cesar, he showed no interest whatsoever. I changed up the books, where I read it, how I read -- but he just didn't give a damn. When he was very little he liked being moved around because the pain of growing and teething was just so much he didn't like to just sit or stay in one place. Then when he got mobile he would simply get away from us reading to go do other things. 

I was getting anxious and frustrated because 'reading to your baby is so important'!!! But it was just not happening. I could try and force him to have reading time together, but then all he'd get from the experience is how he is being forced to do something he doesn't want, and then connect that to reading. So I looked at the point again, and saw that yes reading to your baby is important as a medium towards language development - BUT - it is not the only way to promote language skills and an affinity towards language and reading. So instead of reading to him, I made a point of it to simply talk a lot to him and describe everything we do and touch. I would find different ways of saying the same thing and play with being as specific as possible. When Cesar was about 1,5 years old, he still had no interest in being read to or having reading time together, but I trusted that when the day came that he would be - he would show us and we'd simply support him from there. 

Then one day as we were going for a walk in Spain by the beach, we noticed how he started pointing at all the menus outside of restaurants and was showing an interest in words and their meanings. 

From then on, he slowly started getting interested in being read to and knowing the words of objects, people and animals in his world. Now words and reading form a big part of his life. On the farm we have laminated papers here and there with notices such as 'clean after yourself' or 'This is a septic tank, no foreign objects' by the toilet. And he would point at them and loved having them read to him. So now we have lots of books and flashcards with words laying around, some of them pasted on objects in the house where he can point at them and sound them. Most mornings, he wakes me up by throwing a book on my chest and demanding to read it.

I'm 100% sure that if I had forced him into being read to, and being into reading, that we would not be where we are today and that his relationship with words would have taken a completely different turn!