Back when I was five years old, my best friend in the whole world was a little boy who lived down the lane named Teddy. We had practically everything in common. We both had tag-along little brothers who were the bane of our existence and whom we tortured endlessly. We both loved to play outside, all the more so after our mothers had called us in and we feigned temporary deafness. We both adored going barefoot in the warmer months. Essentially, all the most important qualifications for a childhood friendship.
But, alas. One day a terrible rift surfaced in our relationship.
For, you see, Teddy’s birthday fell in the languid summer months, and mine fell in the cool autumnal season. And so that September, I watched from my second floor bedroom window while my friend, Teddy, climbed the black, rubber-treaded steps of the yellow Indian Run School bus. Tears of the unfairness of it all, the blistering envy that I felt, puddled in the corners of my eyes. Teddy had started Kindergarten, and I would have to wait an entire year until I could go.
My greatest desire in the whole wide world at that tender age was to learn to read. I would sit upon my father’s lap while he read to me in the sinking light of the evenings, wondering in awe at the hieroglyphics that tap danced from their inky residence on the page and sprang to life with my father’s tenor voice.
Do you know a child like this? Is there a little bookworm in your life?
This Christmas, in addition to the bikes, the Disney movies, the action figures and the Wii games, I urge you to buy a child in your life a BOOK. (More than one is even better). Give a child the greatest possible gift – the gift of endless imagination. Reading is the foundation of learning, so encourage children this holiday toward achievement. Support their desire to read.
There are many fabulous choices out there. Here are but a few:
Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder
The Lion, The The Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
Charlotte's Web by E.B. White
What about you?
What book will you be giving to kids this year?
What book will you be giving to kids this year?
My 3 year old loves the "Fancy Nancy" series by Jane O'Connor and Robin Preiss Glasser. She has Fancy Nancy and the Posh Puppy memorized, and now knows "fancy" words such as estatic, unique, spectacular, and ensemble.
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