reading only in your head
Saturday, September 26th, 2009
‘even better than reading with children is letting children see you read’
This wisdom comes from the unflappable Umatji, and putting it into practice this afternoon, I sat down with the brilliant The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks (found via Scout, and not available in Australia, apparently, at least online). As soon as I opened the book I attracted the interest of the almost-reading almost-five-year-old elder daughter.
‘Mum, you can read only in your head.’
‘Yes!’ (Me, delighted.) ‘I really can!’
‘I can read only in my head too.’
Whereupon she found a novel-like book of her own, sat next to me, turned her pages when I turned mine and occasionally interrupted me to show me a word she’d found.
The whole episode made me realise that I am not modelling sustained reading, i.e. not the newspaper or the internet, a whole actual book. I do my reading usually in bed for a few pages or as long as I can keep my eyes open. But I want my children to enjoy those luxurious hours and hours during childhood when you can really lose yourself in a book. And at some point I’d like them to be occupied as such so that I can also return to being occupied as such. So that’s the moral of this tale. Read only in your head. Often.
