It was his last activity in a "Fun Summer Packet"! Only Liam didn't really think the activities were that fun. Maybe because they were photocopied instead of in color, maybe because he was just plain lazy or perhaps because this infringed on his plans for summer (TV, DS, swinging and playing Star Wars with his friends). The last activity asked, "Are you ready to go back to school?" And this was Liam's response. Apparently no, he was not ready to return to school in September... or anytime for that matter!
Not liking reading had spread earlier in the summer like an unchecked disease in my household. Joshua used to read books on his own (looking at pictures, talking about characters and recalling parts of the book) but when Liam exclaimed his distaste for reading, Joshua couldn't help but follow along. "I don't know how to read!" was the reply I would get from Joshua whenever I put a book in his lap or suggested he do the same.
I thought maybe Liam was just sick and tired of reading out loud and maybe he was frustrated by books that were just too difficult. So, being a teacher, a filled a small bin with books and looked up their reading levels (I like to use http://www.scholastic.com/bookwizard/). I suggested that the children spend time each day reading silently. Maybe reading silently would be less work. But no, not really. Even this didn't seem to work and was done with a begrudging attitude by both boys. Yet on a positive note, Liam did read Green Eggs and Ham about 20 times this summer along with a few other books from the Fly Guy series.
At the end of the summer, I couldn't help but perseverate on all we had done for Liam's entire life as a reader. From those first sentimental books that we wanted to read to a baby who just wanted to hear our voice, like Love You Forever and The Polar Express, to lifting up flaps in Susan Katz's "Where is Baby's Mommy?" and giggling at Sandra Boynton's books as we clapped to "Barnyard Dance"! I couldnt' help but think about Liam begging me each night to keep reading as I read aloud Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and how he did the same when Bill read my old childhood copies of The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe series out loud. I thought of all our laughter reading "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!" and shouting "NO"! Or the giggling at the absurdity of Robert Munsch's books like "Pigs!" I mean, who wouldn't laugh at seeing a pig peeing on the principal's shoe? Hours of choosing PBS shows encouraging reading, like Word Girl and Super Why... not important. I thought of library story hours with him shouting out answers that the librarian was asking. I thought of the bookshelves, jammed with books like old friends and with stacks of freshly read books on top of each bookshelf that they liked to have read and reread to them for weeks straight. I thought of the little bin of books in the living room.
Was it really true that Liam didn't like to read? Was all of this a wasted enterprise? I couldn't help but be a concerned parent. In the end, with the advice of a good teacher friend, I had Liam erase his negative answer. I explained that it was not a good way to start the year, that it would make a bad first impression. We talked about what he did like in school, science experiments! And then I asked him, "Liam do you like being read to?" and he smiled at me, I already knew the answer.
Liam might not like reading on his own, but he does love reading with his mommy, daddy and yes, even his teacher. All these years of work has shown him that reading is a shared experience, done on the couch, in our favorite rocking chair or on a big circle rug in his classroom. Someday I know he will be sneaking Captain Underpants or Geronimo Stilton books under the covers at night and begging me for the new hardcover by his favorite author. Someday I'll share Artemis Fowl with him. Someday when his teacher reads aloud Hugo, I know he'll raise his hand (yeah, right!) and shout out "I've read that book with my mom!" So for now I guess I just don't have time to worry about whether or not he likes reading, because regardless of what he writes at the end of a fun summer of doing worksheets, watching TV, playing his DS, swinging and playing Star Wars with friends; I know that my favorite part of the summer was introducing him to Harry Potter.
hehehe cute
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