Read
to your child…
then read with your child!
BY BONNIE SHEEREN Every so often, there will be a news story, a public service announcement or another celebrity conferring Good Parent status on those who cuddle up with their children and read to them. Then, the deluge of an avalanche of data, studies and statistics to say our progeny will be CEOs and rule the world, if we just rely on Good-night Moon, Winnie the Pooh or Charlotte’s Web. While the experts want to lather on kudos for reading every night, overall, it is a very special magical time when we can share these books with little ones and there’s really no need to tie this to future triumphs. Yet, these days slip quickly through our fingers and after that? The reading gurus fall silent on the next step, especially since it’s not as cozy as the first one, or as rewarding, but to get to the final phase, ah, there’s the payoff. During early grade school, there are some clever books like Squids will be Squids, George and Martha and of course, the works of the eternally amazing Shel Silverstein. The tween
years are the times that parents have to wander in the wilderness to get to the Promised Land. After early grade school, parents now find themselves with children rapt about the release of the latest Harry Potter-esque or Twilight series-wannabe book. There is an occasional oasis such as The Hunger Games, but a refreshing literary experience is rare. Scan these books quickly to stay up with the latest tween craze and to keep the lines of communication well maintained for the coming teen years. Trust me, it’ll be good down the road. It’s the next step where the parents get their reward for so many years of patiently encouraging their children to read. Thanks to Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate courses, our children are required to read a huge array of classics from all genres and cultures. Now, here’s the huge secret dividend for parents! In our busy lives, there’s hardly any justification for reading these masterpieces of literature. But for our children, no sacrifice is too great, of course, anything to help them. Last year, my daughter and I went on a boat with a tiger (or was it a tiger?) in the Life of Pi, to ancient India for Siddhartha and then continued to ancient Greece for Antigone. We traveled to New Mexico for Bless Me, Ultima and to Nigeria for Things Fall Apart. I revisited my high school years with Shakespeare’s Midsummer’s Night’s Dream and Orwell’s Animal Farm to compare my adult reaction to these books versus teenage thoughts. And there was poetry (ah, the luxury of poetry) as a part of last year’s curriculum. All this abundance of literary riches classified under the guise of “helping” my child. This is where it all gets interesting. Major works of literature ask the truly difficult, challenging questions that will reconfigure our view of the world from now until the day when we are no longer able to pick up a book. Moreover, as soon-tobe adults, our children are vitally interested in existentialism, even if they don’t know that’s the name of their newfound exploration of the depths of human experience. This is how we can join our children on that journey, using these books as our lodestar and sparking discussions beyond, “What did you do at school today?” Something incredible can happen with these connections with our children as they go forward into their adult years. They can take parenting to another entire plane of existence, and make it bearable to let them go out into the world. Read to your children when they are little. Read with them as they grow. It’s the best thing a parent can do. Bonnie Sheeren has worn many hats over the years. She has been a publisher’s representative for Harper and Row Publishers, a medical video writer/producer and a public school teacher. She recently turned 50, and hopes to synthesize these experiences into writing projects.
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