The Invisible Toolbox by Kim Jocelyn Dickson

Author:Kim Jocelyn Dickson [Dickson, Kim Jocelyn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781642502046
Publisher: Mango Media
Published: 2020-04-08T03:59:01+00:00

Tool 5: Enjoy the Greatest Reward of All: Connection

Once you’ve established the practice of daily reading with your child, you will find the greatest reward of all is the connection established between you. Yes, you will enjoy wonderful stories together and will be entertained and transported by them, but the best part of all is that you’ll be sharing the experience together and learn more about each other. When you select books to read together, you discover what your child’s interests and emotional needs are. A preschooler on a roll with the Curious George series may be looking not only to laugh, but to be reassured that, even when they make mistakes, they’re still loved, forgiven, and all will come out right in the end. When you share books of your choosing—perhaps books that you enjoyed as a child or books you wished you’d read but missed—your child learns about you as well.

Once your child is off to school, learns to read, and grows up, their knowledge and interests will take off. I remember shaking my head constantly during the adolescent years at my son’s ever-expanding world of knowledge and interests: Where did you learn that? I’d wonder. For the longest time, we are the world for our child and so have some idea of what that world encompasses. And then one day, surprise! Your child’s world has grown far beyond you, and they are now reading and learning in uncharted waters of which you may know little. And this, once again, is your opportunity to grow. My son has taught me more about history than I would ever have discovered on my own and piqued my interest in such a way that I’m now a voracious reader of World War I- and World War II-era fiction and nonfiction.

Infectious enthusiasm for a subject can work both ways, benefitting both parent and child. For many years I’ve taught a nonfiction literature unit on Robert Ballard’s compelling narrative of his discovery of the greatest of all shipwrecks, Exploring the Titanic. One year during our study, a student in my class who tended to be academically unmotivated and an indifferent reader began to stay after class and share her excitement with me about what she was now reading at home. As it turned out, her mother had a personal connection to and interest in the Titanic story, and together the two of them were reading the memoir of a stewardess who survived not only the sinking of the Titanic, but two other shipwrecks as well. It was clear to me that my student’s curiosity and motivation to learn and share were directly impacted by her mother’s enthusiasm. I was thrilled to see the light in her eyes and realized, once again, the power that we have as parents to ignite it simply by sharing our time and genuine interest in a book.

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