When Michael was 3 1/2, and had just started pre-school a month before, we went to the local mall. We promised Michael that if he behaved himself, we would go to the bookstore before going home. We had every intention of going to the bookstore anyway, but it was an effective manipulation technique.
When we got there, I left him in the children's section and started browsing the fantasy/sci fi section, which was immediately adjacent, and from where I could see him easily. Not finding anything stupendous, I went over to Michael. He asked, "Can I get 'Me Too'?" "Me Too" is one of the Little Critter series, a series I really rather like for little ones the age of your two. No one else had been in the section, so he could not have been told the name of the book. I asked him if that was a book he had at school. He denied it. "What makes you think that's what it's called?" said I. He gave me a withering look, and said, in an arch tone, "It just is!" He got the book.
He hid his reading skills for some time. When he was in first grade, I realized he needed glasses when I went to his room to tuck him in, and there he was, reading the Orange Fairy Book, about 4" from his nose. Now, if you know the color Fairy Book series that Dover has been putting out since forever, you will know that they are not books for beginner readers. I asked why he didn't want me to know he could read that well. He alleged that if I knew he could read his own bedtime stories, I'd stop reading to him at bedtime. With that little zinger, he got bedtime stories until he went off to boarding school at 13.
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Date: 2006-03-13 04:17 pm (UTC)When we got there, I left him in the children's section and started browsing the fantasy/sci fi section, which was immediately adjacent, and from where I could see him easily. Not finding anything stupendous, I went over to Michael. He asked, "Can I get 'Me Too'?" "Me Too" is one of the Little Critter series, a series I really rather like for little ones the age of your two. No one else had been in the section, so he could not have been told the name of the book. I asked him if that was a book he had at school. He denied it. "What makes you think that's what it's called?" said I. He gave me a withering look, and said, in an arch tone, "It just is!" He got the book.
He hid his reading skills for some time. When he was in first grade, I realized he needed glasses when I went to his room to tuck him in, and there he was, reading the Orange Fairy Book, about 4" from his nose. Now, if you know the color Fairy Book series that Dover has been putting out since forever, you will know that they are not books for beginner readers. I asked why he didn't want me to know he could read that well. He alleged that if I knew he could read his own bedtime stories, I'd stop reading to him at bedtime. With that little zinger, he got bedtime stories until he went off to boarding school at 13.