A life in Literature Beginning when I was a toddler, my mother would read to me every night. We would read books like Boom chicka boom boom and almost all of the Dr. Seuss books. She was an avid reader and believed that I should be, too. My mother began to test my reading ability, each new book becoming more and more complex. She wanted to shape me into someone who was heavily influenced by literature. In elementary school, I was reading two to three grades above my reading level. In fact, there is one book that I will never forget reading. It was called Baby. The story of Baby was actually pretty complex to be comprehended by a child like myself. The story followed a twelve year old girl named Larkin who found a baby, Sophie, on her doorstep, and a note detailing that her family was to care for Sophie until her mother can return. As it turns out, Sophie's mother was secretly watching the family the whole time to ensure that her daughter was well taken care of. In the end, Sophie’s mother returns and the family gives her back, but not without leaving their memories with her forever. The story of Baby dealt with many things, including the loss of an infant son and adoption, which made me wonder why my mother read it to me at all. Later, in middle school, I asked why she chose that book to read to me. She told me that the love that the family showed Sophie was an important message to learn, that “family isn't just blood”. As a child, I never thought about the deeper
Like many parents, mine were supportive of my learning and development at an early age and as I grew, they read to me along with other learning techniques. My mother and father read various children 's books to me in their spare time; and after I had matured some had me read along as well. The books we read together consisted of fairy tale books and short stories such as The Turtle and the Hare. Reading together helped me learn a wider variety of words and inspired myself to pursue reading at an early age on my own. When I was around the age of four or five; my mother and father bought me the leapfrog read along toy as a birthday gift. The toy came with children’s books and a pen that was used to follow along as
Thanks to hours and hours of bedtime stories, I was able to read from the age of 3. In kindergarten I read to my classmates, and by second grade I was reading series like The Boxcar Children and Trixie Belden. Books allowed me to get lost in other worlds full of adventure and excitement. My love for what words can do has extended through high school. I pride myself on my book collection, anything from Hunger Games to The Picture of Dorian Gray. I’ve continued to read all the way through high school, some books four or five times because I love them so much.
My mother taught me how to read at a young age. She read to me before I could read which helped me learn new words and develop a basic understanding of literature at an early age. When it came time for me to attend elementary school, I remember heading to the library quite often. Books were organized based on what was thought to be the appropriate reading material for that grade level. I often found myself wandering down the isles with the older kids. I’m so grateful my mother encouraged reading as much as she did. If she hadn’t, it’s very possible I could have struggled with reading. If this were true, I wouldn’t have learned as much as I did, or had the desire to read, which is very important in order to become as advanced in literature as possible.
Last week we wrote a blog and one of the questions was “How did you learn to read and write?” I found this question interesting because I never had really thought about the moment when I actually learned how to read and write. My mom was the first person to expose me to reading and writing. A popular tactic she did to make sure I was staying engaged was to read aloud stories and make me follow along with her. My mom would read me many different stories like Tarzan, Bambi, Aladdin, Peter Pan, Lion King, The Jungle Book, and Hercules. whatever I wanted to listen and follow along with, she would read with me. This really helped with my want to read. The books contained a lot of adventure, which made it easy as a kid to follow along with. I became to gain an imagination and then all of a sudden reading was easier.
My experience with literature started when I was in the first grade. My first-grade teacher was named Ms. Young. Every Friday, all the teachers would come together to have story time and read the children a book. I would be so excited for story time because I would sit down with my best friends Ashley and Jordan, and we would listen to the teacher that was assigned to read to us. During story time, all the children would gather around in a big circle and the teacher would be in the center in a big brown rocking chair, and read. Over time in the school year, the children would read bigger and longer books like the Junie B. Jones series, chapter books, and the extreme level, which would be the Harry potter series. Sometimes I would fall asleep because the book that was read was very dull. I remember Ms. Young read to us the “Very Hungary Caterpillar”9 by Eric Carle. I loved that book as a child. It had great illustrations of the caterpillar turning into a butterfly. This book made me love reading for the rest of my life. Now in college, I love to read books. I only
My granny instilled my love of books and reading. Every night she would read me the same story before bed. A book that I still cherish, the little golden book version of Heidi. I believed I could be Heidi and my granny encourage my imagination, sewing me clothes like Heidi wore in the pages of my book. My imagination and love of reading grew and she encouraged it always. In her home, there were bookshelves and boxes filled with books and as soon as I learned how I began to read to her.
Most of what I can remember from my childhood is being read to by my mom and her teaching me how to read, alongside my older sister. During the day all that I wanted to do was have my mom read to me, so she would. And every night before I went to bed she would let me pick one book for her to read to me. It was my favorite part of everyday. It wasn’t just at home that people would read to me, my grandma would too whenever we went to her house. She had this book full of short stories that always had a good lesson at the end. I loved hearing my grandma’s soothing voice right before I fell asleep. My favorite book was “One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish” by Dr. Seuss. Since my mom read it to me at least once everyday, I began to memorize it. I wasn’t actually reading the words on the page, I just knew the story so well that I could recite it.
As a six-month-old baby books had opened up a whole entire new world of experience for me. My inspiration to learn how to read and write was encouraged by my Mother and Grandmother. This is because they read out loud to me before bed occasionally and gave me the best time of my life by introducing me to a library. By two years of age I developed speech and other communication skills. This helped me understand and develop a favorite book, “PJ Funny Bunny,” and I would stare at the pages pretending I was reading them. I would continually pretend to read with other Dr. Seuss books, Smurf pop-up books (I imagined I was a part of these for hours), sniff & scratches, and sensory books. I had just begun
Ever since I can remember, my beautiful mother, Anne, would read to me. She would set me in her lap in our big green rocking chair and read Winnie the Pooh, and Dr. Seuss but my all time favorite was Dr. Seuss's "Green Eggs & Ham". No matter where we were or who we were with, she would read that book to me. She read it so many times I'm sure she could recite it word for word. After a few hundred times of her reading it to me, I had all 62 pages memorized. I could even tell when she skipped a page, which I don't blame her, its a long book. At the time, I had no idea simply reading this book would affect my literacy. But by 3, I had 50 words memorized just from the book. As I grew, so did my love for books. I often read in my preschool with
I remember back in second grade my mom used to read books to me. I remember being all cuddled up in a bed with some hot chocolate by my side, just lying there listening to my mother read me chapters from the books that I was supposed to read. The only reason why she read them to me was because she knew that I was not going to read them myself. It’s not that I couldn’t actually read
My dad started reading to me when I was around the age of four or five. I was specifically interested in the book How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight?. My dad read that to me probably every night for two months, until I could “read” it back to him. The reason “read” is in quotations is because I really only memorized the book and the order he would say the words, but looking back now, I think I give a lot of credit for that time in helping me stay ahead in my reading classes. Being able to recognize what certain words looked like helped me make new words and build sentences a little quicker than most kids my age.
Growing up, both of my grandmothers was school teachers who enjoyed reading to me and my cousins whenever the opportunity arose. Many of my favorite memories as a child learning to read lead back to my favorite book my nana would always read to me, The Napping House by Audrey Wood. I would quote the book cover to cover, before actually learning to read, pretending that I was reading in the meantime. My mother also played an important role in my learning to read and write, she and my nana were always encouraging me to read book series like Junie B. Jones, The Little House on the Prairie, The Boxcar Children, Nancy Drew,
When I was little, I loved to have my parents read to me all the time. At first, I didn’t learn to read because I didn’t want to read the “Learn to Read” books and preferred for my parents to read to me. I remember sitting with my Dad and following along while he read Harry Potter aloud to me and traced the words with his finger. Then we started to take turns reading aloud. I started to read more and more by myself after I was able to read the first chapter of Harry Potter (with a little bit of help). Then I worked my way through the rest of the book. I loved how reading let you explore new worlds and different points of view.
Reading has been one of my favorite hobbies since I was a little child. I grew up as a normal child should grow and eventually I had to start learning for me to fit in society. My literacy started many years ago, after I knew how to talk and communicate with people. Reading my alphabet was quite stressful and I had to be given a hand by my family members. I remember my parents reading with me and it was the most meaningful and memorable way to spend time with me. This is because I liked reading a lot and I was eager to learn so that I could fit in with my older siblings. My favorite books were storybooks taking about adventures and fairytales
From an early age I loved to read. At just two years old I would beg my mother to enroll me into school. I watched as my older sister meticulously picked out her outfit each night in preparation for the next school day. At such a young age I somehow knew that this thing called “school” was the answer to something spectacular. My home was chaotic and reading became an escape and helped distract me from the unpleasant family dynamic.