August 30, 2007
Bookish
Books are our friends. A small sign with this adage hung over the blackboard in my favorite class (College Prep English. High school) and saw me through the usual suspects (To Kill a Mockingbird, Catcher in the Rye) as well as extracurricular reading (Kristen Lavransdatter, Les Miserables). School was a safe haven of order and schedule and relatively easy success. As with so many other kids in my situation, books and school and for awhile religion, were a triumvirate of powerful support that carried me away from all the present troubles.
As we make ready for Talky and Tempest to enter Kindergarten next week, I’m reminded (over and over and over) that my love of reading, of school, of pencils and papers and lunchboxes and chalkboards is the religion I hope they carry with them as they grow older.
We visited their Kindergarten a few days ago and met the other kids and the teacher (for the second time). Seeing the little desks and sweet decorations and reading corner was like gazing into a secret hobby hole, where my first babies will be kept safe and learn to read and write. And gratitude and excitement don’t even begin to cover it…
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Gosh, that makes Bossy think of the smell of crayons and sticky juice spilled on the miniature desks and bumble bees swarming the school playground and the v-neck sweater that was way too hot to wear the first day of school.
August 30th, 2007 at 8:15 pmHiya Red!
If you are a lover of books and reading, it will be easy to pass that along to your kids.
Mrs GF and I successfully placed soccergirl into our reading way of life at an early age. Now, she is rarely without a book in her hands or nearby.
I am certain that your kids will find the reading/scholastic world a comfortable place, because you do.
August 31st, 2007 at 10:17 am[...] My twins start First Grade today and it is so exciting I could barely sleep. Aside from the obvious (she describes it as a release from prison) joy and freedom of having children involved in meaningful activities away from home, I’m struck by the surprising everyday weirdness of being a parent. Some mornings I’m still surprised that instead of finding some cute man at my kitchen table making dirty overtures while asking where the Ibuprofen is, I have instead three beautiful daughters fighting over who sits where and asking me when I’ll get them breakfast and why I’m moving so slowly. And also the burgeoning hope that they’ll love school as much as I always have. [...]
September 2nd, 2008 at 8:50 am