Good readers make good writers

Whenever we get to baby-sit our younger grandchildren, the activity soon turns to book reading.

With the older grandkids, not so much. The 24-year-old hasn’t sat on our laps for that exercise in a long time, nor the 20-year-old, nor the 16-year-old.

Even our 9-year-old grandson is sort of out of the habit. When a book pops up with him, it’s more the case that he reads it to us, rather than the other way around. He’s deeply into iPad game playing instead right now. But he’s an excellent reader nonetheless, and when he stays overnight, he still enjoys a bedtime book read to him.

And for the 5-year-old, and especially the 2-year-old, having Grandma or Grandpa read a favorite book aloud is a big deal, especially for the 2-year-old.

He arrives at our house and right away makes a beeline for the book box where his favorites are kept.

He finds them all: “Pout Pout Fish,” “Brown Bear, Brown Bear,” “The Red Ripe Strawberry and the Big Hungry Bear” and “Corduroy.”

He hauls them to one of us, turns around to be picked up and placed on a lap, and hands one of them up for reading.

“Corduroy” is a special favorite right now.

That may be because we also have a DVD of the story which he loves to watch, and we also keep an actual Corduroy teddy bear with green overalls that are missing a button, just as in the book. When we read “Corduroy” or watch the DVD, he hugs the stuffed bear. It’s a big deal.

Child development specialists agree that reading to young children is important for their educational progress.

We concur. Besides, it’s fun.

I just read a report of a study that found that inventive spelling by little kids is an accurate indicator of their reading success later on. In other words, encourage youngsters to write at an early age, and don’t worry about whether they spell the words correctly. Early scribbles turn into tentative words, and they go on from there.

The important thing is to have them get used to experimenting with what letters sound like. Correct spelling can come later.

We treasure some of the earliest jottings of our kids and grandkids, like the birthday cards or Christmas cards they made for us. The made-up spelling on the cards, in which they took understandable pride, is the endearing part.

Nearly everyone of any age can recall favorite childhood books.

We had a lot in our home when I was a kid. A.A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh books gave me pleasure, even the two Winnie poetry books in our bookcases.

I can still remember the names of the Bobbsey Twins from the series of that title: Bert and Nan, and Freddie and Flossie.

Thornton W. Burgess, a New England children’s author, wrote a shelf-full of books about animal characters that all us Morain kids of my generation grew up with: Reddy and Granny Fox, Whitefoot the Woodmouse, Bobby Raccoon, Chatterer the Red Squirrel, Happy Jack the Gray Squirrel, Lightfoot the Deer, and so forth.

When my generation of the family gets together, we will sometimes try to name as many Thornton W. Burgess animals as we can.

(I had a pronounced frontal lisp when I was a kid, so I spoke of the author as “Thornton W. Burgeth.” In later years, Dad would remind me of Thornton W. Burgeth just to try to keep me humble.)

Our four children had their favorites, too.

When they reached an appropriate age, I enjoyed reading aloud J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy novels: “The Hobbit” and the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy. I didn’t discover Tolkien until graduate school, and I was glad to introduce him to our gang when they were younger than that.

Our youngest, now 34, has continued his Tolkien exploration ever since, and he has an impressive command of all the legends and personages that populate that author’s Middle-earth creation.

Other favorites for our kids were The Boxcar Children series and the Little House on the Prairie books. And our daughter shared Kathy’s childhood fascination with the Betsy Tacy series.

Kathy was also a loyal devotee of “Caddie Woodlawn,” and she liked the Nancy Drew mysteries as well. Her list is endless.

I know that cursive writing is not emphasized in education today. That puzzles me, but I imagine there’s a good reason for it. Many young people today do a lot more texting on their phones than actual writing.

But employers still look for good writing skills when they hire.

We’ll see in a couple of decades how things shake out in that department.

But for me, reading and writing are two sides of the same coin.

Good readers make good writers.

I’m glad our progeny, and their progeny, all started out attracted to books.

Reading is an enjoyable lifetime skill that keeps on giving.

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Jefferson Bee & Herald
Address: 200 N. Wilson St.
Jefferson, IA 50129

Phone:(515) 386-4161