Why Reading is Cool!

I can read even if I am little. I am five years old but I am learning to read. Now I can read. It feels really good. Now I can read a book that has a number one (she means the level one I Can Read books). It really is easy. Trust me. If you don't believe me, just go to the library.

- Audrey

It is a joyful and proud moment when one's child is beginning to read on her/his own. From my perspective, Audrey's foray into reading highlights her expanding independence from me as well as our continuing interdependence. It presents new opportunities for her to know more about the world in which she lives, and to be an active participant in it. She can begin accessing information on her own. The ways she can be helpful is also (theoretically) increasing. 

On my end as her parent, this milestone challenges me to find new ways to support her growth and development. At the same time, it is a moment when my hopes fly high - Can I finally be liberated from doing some things for her? Can I now finally truly begin to do some new things with her? Can I now begin to stand back and watch her handle more things on her own and offer guidance and support when needed or sought? Can I now gradually begin to do things I want to do for myself?

I sometimes tell Audrey to read to herself at bedtime while I finish washing the dishes. To her delight, we occasionally choral read or do a dramatic reading of a story together (e.g., taking on characters in the story). Sometimes I ask her to read the tiny prints on bottles and boxes that my aging eyes are no longer able to read without the help of eyeglasses. She asks me what certain words mean as she comes across them on food labels and everywhere else, and how to spell words the conventional way. She reads signs on the roads and keeps herself entertained and useful. "Speed limit 45, Mom." She is beginning to do and make things for herself, like pancakes for breakfast on Saturday morning. I am grateful for good recipes printed on the back of boxes!

She still needs to hold my hand as she falls asleep. I still help her dry off after bathing. She needs her cuddles and tickles. She needs me to educate her about what is safe and not, and why that is so. Audrey needs to try things out for herself and make mistakes, no matter how many times she will do the same thing and make the same mistakes. That is how she learns and grows stronger in mind and heart. She went through the same process while learning to read. Reading feels liberating to new readers and to the adults who had guided them in the process. That is my and Audrey's experience. This is a new partnership, a new chapter in our continuing journey together.

There goes Lynne May and her dramatic proclamations, one might observe. I do speak from my heart. When Melanie started reading on her own at age four, I felt joyful and proud. But the impact of that event on me was different then, simply because I was at a very different stage in my own life as an individual, a mother, a teacher, and a woman. That event took place nine years ago, when I just entered the 40's. Now I am about to mark half a century of being on this planet. The urge to do something substantial, and to define what that can be, is strong. I keep my eyes trained on my children, and always will. As I do that, I also see the world around them and everything that is in it, including my own fingerprints and the empty spaces.

I filmed Audrey making her own blueberry pancakes. This was her third time making pancakes straight from the box. This is not her first time being filmed, talking to her audience, sounding like one of those people on How-To television programs. I know she will be an avid reader just like her sister. I hope she will be a better and more enthusiastic cook than I am. Maybe she will begin making our dinner when she is in first grade.

- LM