Wednesday, February 8, 2012

The Depths to Which we Sink

Okay. 
This is a shameful confession. 
I've taken to bribing my Sprocket. 
Not just any bribe. I've been bribing him with television. (And here I was, he wasn't going to watch it till he was say, 25!) 
He can chose one abc iview show (Octonauts, Angelina Ballerina, Thomas the Tank Engine, Fireman Sam) for every story he listens to. 
He used to love stories. As a baby we'd read through them every day and he'd coo and cuddle and bring me his favourites.
I think I 'read' him his first little black and white story (especially designed for baby's eyes) when he was two days old. I read him poetry in the womb.
As a toddler he's too busy trying to discover new ways to scale the walls or pretend to be a superhero. (Generally involving large sticks, dangerous implements unerringly unearthed, or some of his daddy's and my much-loved-objects-rapidly disintegrating) 
I'd try to read him a story in bed and I'd find he'd be using my shoulder as a foothold to climb up on the bed head and from there go on to swing on the railings of the Poppets four poster cot. And sometimes climb right up on top of it. 
So. 
Bribery. 
And I used to be a children's librarian. 
It seemed so easy back then! 
Of course, on reflection, I only saw the kids whose mum's dared to bring them into the library and weren't afraid they'd start climbing the shelves or de-populating the shelves of books. 
And the thing is - it's been working. 
These last few days we've been reading more stories than we have in the last few weeks. 
Yesterday we read Alison Lester's Magic Beach 3 times, Animalia twice, We read half of 'Children Just Like Me' and a rather bad choice on my behalf Walk With a Wolf' (If I'd checked it first I might have realised you don't just walk with the wolf, you go with it as it hunts and kills an old and lame moose. Beautiful illustrations. Might put it away for when the kids are adults and able to deal with trauma. As it is I fluffed a lot of pages. 'Moose sad mummy?' - 'Ah - um the moose is sleeping''. I know. Cop out!) We read Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Did you See?
I am loving it. 
I have a kid tucked in on each side and a book in front of me. 
Now why didn't I think of it earlier? 

*Please don't add up the time he's been sitting watching tv!   I'm thinking of it as a neccessary... and peaceful - downside! Soon we will work on two books per show....

6 comments:

  1. Surely 21st century children should be entertained with both the written word, and the wonders of a digital revolution.

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    1. Umm- Still trying to evaluate the evidence hon. At the moment it's not that favourable re real life vs. fake like. Seems kids learn better from real life. Who would have thunk it!

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  2. I SO need to spend more time reading with my kids!!!

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    1. I know - so many distractions in a day! But so lovely when we do get around to it!

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    1. At present that's my thought - he loves the books when we read (although possibly not as much as Fireman Sam) but needs... encouragement to sit still!
      And if that's what I need to do to get those 5 books a day into him - well hey.
      Now I just need to work on 5 serves of vegies a day. I think it might be harder...

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