Teaching a small person to decipher letters and learn the secret code of reading is an electric experience. I feel completely amazed at the power of discovery, the beauty of achievement and the incredibly special tenderness of watching literacy unfold.
I have been teaching Ru to learn and he's chomping along in the reading book, learning bigger and bigger words but still not really making the leap to reading himself or devouring story for himself. I continue nudging him along and he's still making steady progress and I am waiting for the lights to blaze full in his face and set him mind buzzing with the possibilities of what he has just grasped.
In the meantime, Dee nuzzled up under my elbow and started begging to have a reading lesson too. At just four year old he's not really ready for the physical elements of writing free-hand but he is able to trace my letters and follow dotted-line letters I set up for him and at his urging I started teaching him the basic first nibbles of reading. By golly, he's getting it! He's reading little words all by himself! I feel like a rockstar in the presence of all this acquisition!
Just sifting photos today and noticed this wonderful set of shots that Ru took of his little brother reading his favorite book of the moment. I love that his big brother thought this was a good subject, I love that he's so absorbed that he's reading standing up, I love that we see him through the handle of the broom and framed by the cupboard he's standing next to, I love the way the book moved up and down in the shots, I love that you can see me making dinner on the counter behind him and I love the myriad little expressions he makes under the story's spell.
Love the way he's absorbed in the back cover page here and letting the story bits fall open also digging the inquisitive angle of his head.
Something serious here...
Love the furrowed brow sticking out over the book
Focus on the book now....his little head is blurry background...cute, cute.
Cute little jolly emotion here
Get a load of that cute little bit of hair sticking up...and those tiny fingers curled around the cover
Having children is such a wonderful business. Its super fun to watch them "become." I love watching to see what shapes they unfurl into. Its like those little gel cap, sponge animals we played with as kids (did you play with those?) that melt away on contact with hot water and slowly uncurl and then Tada!!! You can see that your red capsule was a hippo! So cool! I feel like I did when I was five with my chin up over the edge of my grandma's bathroom sink, watching to see what the capsules I've been given become. You know all the shapes are good....but golly...who knows what they'll be! The fun is in the revealing. I love watching Ru learn to love photography and seeing through his eye when I upload his pictures, I love seeing Dee pick favorite stories and watching what special bits he loves and why. Its just really darn cool watching my boys be them! I can't wait to see what Nib becomes. Maybe he'll be a little red hippo! You never know! Mommyhood is cool like that.
A and I read together, its one of the ways (as discussed in this post ) that I manage to fit literature into my life. We read on the daily commute occasionally, we read on long road trips and we sometimes even read in the evenings while we take turns getting ready for bed or after the little ones are down for the night instead of a movie or some other relaxy activity.
"Steinbeck's slippers" shoved under a quilt covered bed at the Steinbeck Museum
We both really love Steinbeck and our recent trip to California only reminded us. Excitingly, we have not even come close to reading his works and so there's still a lot out there to discover. We talked a little during that trip and then recently, when we finished our latest read about how we'd love to read more Steinbeck and, which one should we pick for our next tome?
A had never read The Grapes of Wrath. Never read it! Really! He's a very well-read guy so this kind of discovery is quite astonishing. I had read it which immediately made me feel very cool. (thank you public high school English teacher) These little moments of achievement in which I have done something intelligent that A hasn't are the kind of things we hold onto. *grin*
Dustbowl ephemera from The Steinbeck Center in Salinas
Even though I'd read it once and I'm not the kind of person who re-reads anything....ever. Still, I was more than happy to pick it for our next read-aloud. I loved the book the first time around and I know how much fun we both have reading Steinbeck together and I'm certain A will love it which will make it a complete joy to live through again as a couple.
So, this week the copy we ordered off of Amazon arrived in the mail and we ripped it right open in the van and proceeded to make story-hour out of the traffic jam we were stuck in on our way home. Such fun. I really love Steinbeck. And folks, granted, I'm still rather deeply hormonal but still, I was crying within pages of the front cover. The man is a word wizard with such an empathetic and beauty probing gift that I can't help but wish we had time for one long non-stop reading time. It was so hard to see our driveway approaching and know that it was time to wrap it up. I've been salivating ever since about when we'll get another little moment to dive in again.
Steinbeck quote about our local area
And today, thinking about the whole story and the characters (I do love Ma Joad) I was stumbling around through YouTube and discovered accidently that Woodie Guthrie, one of those golden American songwriters had a similiar fascination. He wrote several rambling songs, set to plucky guitar accompaniment that are on the subject of The Dust Bowl, the Great Depression, Tom Joad himself, and the migrant workers that Steinbeck was so absorbed by. Enjoy the following:
Also, check out this amazing painting by artist Ashley Cecil who was commission by Oxfam to illustrate the poverty of modern farmers in the third world. Love the brilliant colors, the swirling dust coming from the bowl of the harvesting woman and elegant use of emotion. Lest we forget, The Dust Bowl was not just a quaint event in American history, it has just rolled on to other places where mothers still struggle to feed their little ones and the hand to mouth life drives families on in desperation.
And folks, if you somehow managed to escape school without reading Grapes...do yourself a favor and pick up this brilliant bittersweet American masterpiece. I also highly recommend Travels With Charley and Of Mice and Men.
