How to help a child get curious with the process of reading, by introducing the children to the books, then reading, then, telling the stories to them, and allow the children, to initiate their own, process of learning and discovery of things around them in life, from the experiences of a single father here, translated…
Before you were born, I’d started thinking of, what sorts of readers would be fitted for very young children to read? Through reading the parenting expert, Lee’s books, it’d made me aware, of ways to help children who can’t read yet learn to recognize the characters. There’s a vital point she’d made, for children from birth to a year old, the book isn’t the focus in the reading times, the focus should be on the children instead and, it’s not for our young to read, but for us, to read the books with and to them.
We are grown ups, and, the habits of reading that we take up, it’s, self-motivated, self-initiated, but, for a young child of a year old to get into books, it wouldn’t be through the child’s own interests, but to set up the environments for it, helping the child feel, that it’s something fun, to have the parents read along to them.
with books, a world of wonder, opens up for young children…
Through these reading times we shared, I’d slowly come to understand how it is that you discover this world. If you can’t understand what I’m reading to you, then, I shall, tell the stories to you. sometimes, I’d sung those nursery rhymes, read a passage. Sometimes, as I was reading the research papers, you’d opened up your eyes wide, and looked at me, then I’d, read a passage to you from what I was reading. Maybe, it was with a flattened tone of voice, and, you’d, fallen asleep soundly, and I got my extra time, to work on my thesis then.
As you grew to four months old, you seemed to have developed an interested for the books I have at home, you couldn’t walk yet, but you’d, patted down those books, sometimes, grabbed at them, sometimes, hit on them, seemed to be, exploring, what books do. At this time, you’d wanted to pick everything up, to flip through it, even, biting it, and your drools got all over everything you’d, touched. Toward the unknowns of this world, curiosity drove you to explore these books placed before your eyes.
You were intrigued with some of the simple colors, sometimes, the shapes were what drew you in, with my higher and lower voices that told the stories to you by the day, it’d, made you believe that this thing before you, is worth your, discovering, a world of wonder to you. I don’t expect you to be focused, just hoped, that the moment you picked up a book, you know that I’ll be holding you, then, we will, look at the interesting illustrations, while those things before your eyes were still, a bit, strange, but it will, lead you, into, a brand new world.
And slowly, I’d found, that your eyes, and your focus, on the illustrations, as I carried you and read to you, you would, shift your gazes to the illustration of what I was, reading to you. as you began to talk, maybe, you were, a bit, slurred in your speech, but you’d, modeled after me, or, start chuckling with me at the same places.
In the process of reading together, every book became a journey we shared in our lives. Your eyes shifted to the illustrations, to the lines of the strokes of the characters nearby, and those abstract symbols made you realize, that they’re, related to the illustrations. When you’re almost two, some words, you can already, recognize, at this time, I’d known, that it’s time, I introduced you, to another, world.
I’d not asked you to recognized the characters so soon, but every day, watching daddy read those books with nothing but the words on them, it seemed, to made you interested in the strokes that made up those, Chinese characters. As you’re about to turn three, you would asked me to tell you the pronunciation of each and every word, as I was still contemplating on whether or not I should tell you, or should I teach you based off of how I was taught in the past, start with the phonetics, then, the pronunciations of each and every word, then, word recognition, the terms, sentences, and then, the whole essays, in this progression?
I’d thought, that I should, teach you to recognize the characters as a starting point! At first, you’d recognized the simpler characters, then, noted how the character for “big” was related to the character in your name. Found that the same character appeared at the end of a lot of words…………, and, noted how a lot of the sentences ended with the same character.
A first, this was, a bit, tiresome, because reading had always been a one-way thing, with me, reading, performing the books out for you, but as you learned to recognize the characters, you’d slowly, pointed to the characters word for word, wanted me to read them aloud, then, tried to read the entire sentences by yourself. The books that took us, twenty minutes to read from cover to cover for us, because you wanted to recognize the characters, it’d, taken us, an entire, hour.
But I think, that maybe, this is, the curiosities you found of reading, from before, you’d only felt around the books, felt it was fun, easy for you to snatch, tasted pretty good as you bit down on them, then, slowly, you’d, decipher the illustrations, connecting them to mean things, with the series of illustrations, connecting the storyline, then, noted the relations of the words with the illustrations. A door is about to flung open for you, the world of stories, not only existed in our world, it will transcend, this world too, becoming its own, independent, existence, it’s, where our imagination will run wild, and free.
So this, is this young boy’s passage into reading, he was at first, interested in how the books tasted (the oral stage of development) and explored everything through his senses, grabbing at the books, touching them, patting them, etc., etc., etc., then, this young child noted the symbols on the books, and was interested in what they all mean, and, his father was loving, to take the time, to sit down with him to read, which added to this young child’s love of reading, and now, as the child grows older, he will, take this love of reading, this love of discovery, and apply it to the rest of his life as he ages.
Life, the Obstacle Course 