By way of my son I got to spend time with two amazing children. Actually all children are amazing. We need only pay attention.
The six year old was experiencing boredom and frustration with reading those "Bob" books. I looked at them and thought, "I'm with you, Bud."
At the time I was reading John Taylor Gatto's book, "The Underground History of American Public Education." In explaining some of the information I found in the book to my son, I was aware of how closely the six year old was listening. Later I found him over at the book thumbing through it.
The next day I asked the four year old and the six year old did they want to me read some of the book to them. "Yes!" At the dining room table these two children sat for two hours listening as I read about George Washington and Benjamin Franklin's schooling and education. Not one moment of short attention span, not one moment of boredom and nobody had to get up and go to the bathroom. Two hours!
At John Taylor Gatto's suggestion I copied phonemes off the internet and made the six year a "Secret Code" notebook to help him learn to read. His reading improved and more important a love of reading bloomed.
This noticing of how these young children wanted to belong in the real world (adult world) led me to buy at the Paws and Claws thrift store two adult dictionaries. These went to the boys along with highlighting pens. The six year old loved learning how to look up words. Then I'd read the definition to him. The four year would look through his dictionary and find pictures. I'd point out the word (which he then happily highlighted) and read the definition.
Two years later both boys keep their adult dictionaries and secret codebooks with their highlighting pens underneath their beds.
If you like to share a lovely child story please do.
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