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Humuhumu usually reads two stories aloud before bed each night. One is her latest school book and the other is something familiar that she loves. She’s now in Level Orange in the school books, which is as difficult as the Reception year reading gets.
Last night she was reading her school book (a Biff, Chip, and Kipper* extravaganza with small but important cameo appearances from Floppy) and Keiki was bibbling around her bed, impatiently waiting for his story to be read. He’d picked out The Bad-Tempered Ladybird, which is his current favourite. Once Humuhumu had finished, he plonked himself in my lap - I sit between their beds during story time - and opened the book.
I asked him if he wanted me to read it. Normally he says yes, but that night he said, “Mummy, I want to read it.” I expected him to get a couple of pages in and then yield up the book. Nope. He did the whole thing (from memory; I don’t think he can read the words yet). The Bad-Tempered Ladybird is not a short book. Yes, it’s a picture book, but the bad-tempered ladybird flies along, running into creatures of increasing size and asking if they want to fight. There’s a fair bit of repetition in the dialogue (e.g. “Hey you! Want to fight?...Oh, you’re not big enough”) so I wasn’t too surprised that Keiki could do those bits. I was astonished, though, that he remembered what each of the different animals did to warn off the ladybird. The praying mantis reaches out its long front legs. The sparrow opens its sharp beak. The lobster stretches its claws. The skunk lifts its tail. And so on. He knew all eleven of them, including the whale.
It feels like this cognitive leap was very sudden. He does sometimes recite passages along with me when I’m reading books, but this is the first time he’s tried to read a book to Humuhumu and me of his own volition. It felt like a big milestone.
* Non-UK friends: These are all children’s names. Floppy is the only one that’s a dog. Yeah, I know. o.O
Last night she was reading her school book (a Biff, Chip, and Kipper* extravaganza with small but important cameo appearances from Floppy) and Keiki was bibbling around her bed, impatiently waiting for his story to be read. He’d picked out The Bad-Tempered Ladybird, which is his current favourite. Once Humuhumu had finished, he plonked himself in my lap - I sit between their beds during story time - and opened the book.
I asked him if he wanted me to read it. Normally he says yes, but that night he said, “Mummy, I want to read it.” I expected him to get a couple of pages in and then yield up the book. Nope. He did the whole thing (from memory; I don’t think he can read the words yet). The Bad-Tempered Ladybird is not a short book. Yes, it’s a picture book, but the bad-tempered ladybird flies along, running into creatures of increasing size and asking if they want to fight. There’s a fair bit of repetition in the dialogue (e.g. “Hey you! Want to fight?...Oh, you’re not big enough”) so I wasn’t too surprised that Keiki could do those bits. I was astonished, though, that he remembered what each of the different animals did to warn off the ladybird. The praying mantis reaches out its long front legs. The sparrow opens its sharp beak. The lobster stretches its claws. The skunk lifts its tail. And so on. He knew all eleven of them, including the whale.
It feels like this cognitive leap was very sudden. He does sometimes recite passages along with me when I’m reading books, but this is the first time he’s tried to read a book to Humuhumu and me of his own volition. It felt like a big milestone.
* Non-UK friends: These are all children’s names. Floppy is the only one that’s a dog. Yeah, I know. o.O
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I used to volunteer to help with reading at the local primary school. I didn't half get sick of Biff, Chip and co!
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(I spend an awful lot of my life hearing children read, and have developed very strong opinions on reading schemes).
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Luckily Quatlet went from not reading to devouring anything in about two weeks so I was spared Floppy and friends overload, as the few months when Quatling had them was quite enough. X-phonics was a fair bit better - four friends have watches that make them micro-size...
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This sounds like good development of reading skills for Keiki, going from passages to a full book by memory. Repetition is one of the things that small kids pick up on pretty quickly, so yay for everyone.
(I'm also thrilled that Humuhumu wants to read to Keiki as well. More people doing more books is to Keiki's benefit, and Humuhumu can use the practice.)
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So, yeah, quantum leap in cognition.
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I have a bit of video of one of my kids, sitting seriously, and reading Each Peach, Pear, Plum out loud, just quietly keeping themselves amused. I presume from memory (most of the family can still do most of that book from memory, although we have problems with the transitions from page to page)
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One of the good things when I lived with a smol was realizing that if she could recite most of her current favourite book, we could recite together when in the car.
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Ha, yes, there are definitely some clunkers in the Biff/Chip/etc repertoire.
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Oh yeah, I'm not looking forward to going through the clunkers in the Floppy, etc repertoire when he starts school. The Julia Donaldson ones are pretty good.
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