As noted in a previous blog post, in 601 we spent some time interviewing each other and taking down literacy histories and sponsorship stories last week. While walking in to campus today, I realized one important factoid that I forgot to share with Tanya while she was interviewing me.
My parents did not read to me when I was growing up. I have no memories (nada) of being read to by my parents when I was a child. I guess I should play the sad soundtrack/wispy violin music to accompany that revelation. When my parents were not working on our family farm or doing things for my siblings and I, they were reading for their own edification and pleasure. I guess it was expected that I'd watch and absorb the value of reading and eventually read on my own. My earliest literacy/reading memories, as I told Tanya, were of my parents reading the newspaper. They read the local paper _The Wenatchee World_ filled with stories about farming and local news, but they also took _The Wall Street Journal_. I remember them avidly passing the paper and discussing it with each other. Later on, we (my siblings and I) read the papers with them.
I had well-worn children's books, but I don't remember my mom reading to me at bed-time, and my Dad was probably "laid out" (as we used to say) on the living room floor after his 12 hour work day. I don't feel particularly bad about the not being read to realization. At the time, I didn't know that parents would read to their kids-I didn't think of it as an option or something I could ask for. I don't remember asking my Mom to read to me or lamenting the fact she didn't. I just remember wanting to learn to read myself.
Interestingly, I spent a lot of time reading to my "dolls" when I was about eight years old. I have several theories about this. One, I didn't know what else to do with those damn dolls, so I made them into "students." Two, I liked the idea of reading to someone (even inert dolls) and sharing books (maybe an attempt to enact the "being read to" exchanges I didn't have with my parents).
When I was in the third and fourth grade, we were read to (chapter books) by our teachers after lunch everyday, and I have great memories of my classmates and I sitting around bawling about the ending of _Where the Redfern Grows_ or clapping after we heard the final lines of_Follow My Leader_, a great story about a young boy recently blinded and his seeing eye dog named "Leader." These "serial installments" were a highlight of our days, and I don't remember anyone really acting out much during those reading sessions.
Yes, I read to my daughter. But I'm noticing she is increasingly impatient with Tom and I reading to her. She grabs the book and wants to "read" the parts she likes. So she is taking over. She is also "spelling" words. Copying down what she sees in books, and I'm not forcing her to use MLA documentation....
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3 comments:
Teaching your daughter to plagiarize, eh?
I don't really remember my mom reading to me, but she must have, because I do remember taking Dr. Seuss's ABC to kindergarten for show and tell, only to discover that I did not actually KNOW HOW TO READ. An embarassing realization in front of the class.
I do remember my mom and sisters and I (Dad didn't really start reading until he retired from those 12-hour days!) going to the local library branch every Tuesday night and bringing home the limit (11, I think) each. Most of which were read within a day.
I don't remember my parents reading to me much either - but I do specifically remember being taught by them to read myself, beginning when I was just a toddler. Mom bought this learning set that included flashcards of common household objects (like davenport, chair, table - those kinds of things) and body parts (hand, arm, nose, eye, etc), along with alphabet cards, and a little book called "Nose is Not Toes." By the time I was in kindergarten, I was a member of a book club and reading those Dr. Suess and Little Golden books by myself. My dad, rather than read to me, had me read to him, and he would correct me where I made mistakes.
Like Susan, I discovered the local library at a young age. We didn't have one in the town where I lived, I don't think, but my grandmother took me to the Multnomah County library branch on Sandy Blvd when I visited there. We would walk down the hill from her house, and come back with a cart full of books for me to read. I was so amazed that they would let me take books home without paying for them, just on a promise to return them!
Now that I have around 80 books checked out from Bird and the Law library, I am still amazed at the generosity of libraries. I sometimes think that if we really want to promote literacy and imagination in children, we should support in both money and volunteer time the local free library systems in our communities.
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