Reading
25/09/15 05:13
As was the case with our children, our grandchildren have books read to them every evening. The benefits of reading to children have been well documented and there are many major studies that show how good it is for children to have books read to them. Most of the studies fail to mention the benefit of reading to children for adults. Parents and grandparents have known for generations that reading to children is not only a pleasant experience. It is also an opportunity for adults to learn and grow. In our family, we have the added benefit of generous children who allow us to read to our grandchildren most evenings when we are visiting and regularly via Skype when we are apart.
I do a lot of reading. I belong to a book club and a weekly Bible study. I keep up with advances in theological education. I enjoy biographies and fiction and poetry. My library surrounds me with books and my office is filled with them as well. But there was a time after our children left home before grandchildren entered our lives when I was away from the classics like “Cat in the Hat” and “Go Dog, Go!” It is good to be back to reading those books again.
No matter how long or difficult your day has been, I challenge anyone to try to read “Fox in Sox” with a straight face. If you can do it, you are simply reading too slowly. Go back, speed up, and you’ll be actually rolling on the floor laughing instead of sending ROFL texts.
What book could be more complete and fun than “Go Dog, Go!”? It has everything: chase scenes (Dogs in cars, dogs going fast!), romance (Do you like my hat?), danger (Will the dogs stop in time to save the little bird?), suspense (Where are all those dogs going?) and 24-hour adventure (Now it is night, it is time for sleep.) It is all capped with a surprise ending. I won’t ruin the surprise for you if you haven’t read it.
Our grandson turned for last February and by this summer he was ready for chapter books. He doesn’t read himself, though there are several books including “One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish” that he has memorized sufficiently to say the right words on the right pages. But he loves stories. So this summer has opened him up to “The Wizard of Oz,” “James and the Giant Peach,” and a collection of little monkey tales that was a book read to his grandmother when she was young.
As I have previously mentioned, the benefits of these books to his parents and grandparents is obvious. We are all better people, more capable in our jobs, more concerned about others, and in a better humor because we have been given the gift of reading to him.
I know that Shel Silverstein’s stories and poetry are just around the corner for us and I’m excited at the reading that we will soon be doing.
It will probably be a couple of years before our grandson is old enough for Michael Ende’s “Momo,” but I already can’t wait to read that wondrous adventure to him. In the book there are men in gray who come to the community and convince unsuspecting characters to save time. The problem with saving time, however, is that the more you save the less you have. Even with the promise of compound interest, decreasing the amount of time wasted results in the individual having less time. You don’t have to do the math of estimating the number of seconds left in your life to realize the truth of this observation.
Being efficient and saving time often only leads to more busy-ness and less time to enjoy relationships with others and observe the beauty of this world. What is often called “wasting” time is actually engaging in creative thinking and problem solving.
In this multi-tasking, 24/7 world, we often fail to give ourselves the gift of time. We convince ourselves that we have to remain in motion all the time and if there is any pause in the action out come the smart phones and we are either texting, checking our e-mail or taking photographs and sending them to friends who are rapidly becoming people that we don’t have time for face-to-face contact and have relegated to Facebook and Instagram. I get a couple of “friend” requests each week from people that I have never met. How can I possibly know if they are friends? And if I responded to every comment that flashes by on my Facebook timeline, I would never have time for conversation with the folks who contribute so much meaning to my life.
Unlike the story by Ende, we don’t have a conspiracy of strange men in gray who smoke small cigars and come around to convince us that we need to get serious about saving time and that we don’t have time to waste with sleeping, eating, caring for relatives or visiting the sick. We have adopted lifestyles which fill our days with driving to and from activities and events. We have filled our schedules with meetings and appointments. We have convinced ourselves that we don’t have time to wait in line or talk to the folks near us. In the story, this is something that is done to unsuspecting people. In real life it is something that we are doing to ourselves.
I now know that there are more books I’d love to read than there is time remaining in my life. In a strange way that fact is comforting. I know I’ll never run out of things to read. I’m learning to read a wide diversity of different kinds of books and expand my learning beyond a narrow circle of interests. I take more time for poetry these days and read more autobiographies and essays than before.
In the midst of all of this, I am resolved to always make time for reading to children and to be the grandpa who says, “Yes!” when I hear “Read it again! Read it again!”
I do a lot of reading. I belong to a book club and a weekly Bible study. I keep up with advances in theological education. I enjoy biographies and fiction and poetry. My library surrounds me with books and my office is filled with them as well. But there was a time after our children left home before grandchildren entered our lives when I was away from the classics like “Cat in the Hat” and “Go Dog, Go!” It is good to be back to reading those books again.
No matter how long or difficult your day has been, I challenge anyone to try to read “Fox in Sox” with a straight face. If you can do it, you are simply reading too slowly. Go back, speed up, and you’ll be actually rolling on the floor laughing instead of sending ROFL texts.
What book could be more complete and fun than “Go Dog, Go!”? It has everything: chase scenes (Dogs in cars, dogs going fast!), romance (Do you like my hat?), danger (Will the dogs stop in time to save the little bird?), suspense (Where are all those dogs going?) and 24-hour adventure (Now it is night, it is time for sleep.) It is all capped with a surprise ending. I won’t ruin the surprise for you if you haven’t read it.
Our grandson turned for last February and by this summer he was ready for chapter books. He doesn’t read himself, though there are several books including “One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish” that he has memorized sufficiently to say the right words on the right pages. But he loves stories. So this summer has opened him up to “The Wizard of Oz,” “James and the Giant Peach,” and a collection of little monkey tales that was a book read to his grandmother when she was young.
As I have previously mentioned, the benefits of these books to his parents and grandparents is obvious. We are all better people, more capable in our jobs, more concerned about others, and in a better humor because we have been given the gift of reading to him.
I know that Shel Silverstein’s stories and poetry are just around the corner for us and I’m excited at the reading that we will soon be doing.
It will probably be a couple of years before our grandson is old enough for Michael Ende’s “Momo,” but I already can’t wait to read that wondrous adventure to him. In the book there are men in gray who come to the community and convince unsuspecting characters to save time. The problem with saving time, however, is that the more you save the less you have. Even with the promise of compound interest, decreasing the amount of time wasted results in the individual having less time. You don’t have to do the math of estimating the number of seconds left in your life to realize the truth of this observation.
Being efficient and saving time often only leads to more busy-ness and less time to enjoy relationships with others and observe the beauty of this world. What is often called “wasting” time is actually engaging in creative thinking and problem solving.
In this multi-tasking, 24/7 world, we often fail to give ourselves the gift of time. We convince ourselves that we have to remain in motion all the time and if there is any pause in the action out come the smart phones and we are either texting, checking our e-mail or taking photographs and sending them to friends who are rapidly becoming people that we don’t have time for face-to-face contact and have relegated to Facebook and Instagram. I get a couple of “friend” requests each week from people that I have never met. How can I possibly know if they are friends? And if I responded to every comment that flashes by on my Facebook timeline, I would never have time for conversation with the folks who contribute so much meaning to my life.
Unlike the story by Ende, we don’t have a conspiracy of strange men in gray who smoke small cigars and come around to convince us that we need to get serious about saving time and that we don’t have time to waste with sleeping, eating, caring for relatives or visiting the sick. We have adopted lifestyles which fill our days with driving to and from activities and events. We have filled our schedules with meetings and appointments. We have convinced ourselves that we don’t have time to wait in line or talk to the folks near us. In the story, this is something that is done to unsuspecting people. In real life it is something that we are doing to ourselves.
I now know that there are more books I’d love to read than there is time remaining in my life. In a strange way that fact is comforting. I know I’ll never run out of things to read. I’m learning to read a wide diversity of different kinds of books and expand my learning beyond a narrow circle of interests. I take more time for poetry these days and read more autobiographies and essays than before.
In the midst of all of this, I am resolved to always make time for reading to children and to be the grandpa who says, “Yes!” when I hear “Read it again! Read it again!”