To read or not to read? No contest there We went visiting the Boy's nieces and nephew on Saturday. Well, and his brother and wife as well. It's funny how any visit to a house full of kids seems to end up more about the kids than their parents. Still, I like the little guys. They're well behaved (mostly), smart, and interesting to talk with. The middle child, and also the only boy, is a five, and a mathematical genius. He can add, subtract and multiply faster than anyone I know. And not just basic 4 times 8 questions. He can do word problems like: How many seconds in 2 hours and 47 minutes. My only complaint would be that their parents don't read to them. Or, at least, not enough in my opinion. I'm perhaps a little biased because I've been reading to myself since I was four and had no lack of reading volunteers before. Their youngest is three and has a grand total of seven books. Seven! So, for Christmas, they're getting books from me. They'll probably be terribly disappointed but I don't care. How will they learn to think and imagine and dream if all their stimuli are coming from a television? TV leaves no room for imagination. None. It's fine, but reading is better. Much better. Thousands of times better. I figure some sort of dinosaur book for the five year old boy and a pop-up type book for the three year-old, but I'm stumped on the oldest. She doesn't read well enough for my more favourite kids books, but I don't want to get her something she wouldn't be interested in because the subject matter is too young. Guess I'll just have to go hang out in the kids section in Chapters! |