I spend all my time writing to Cindy on Cinderstuff and never have time to come over here! :-P
She loves sitting down in the morning and reading what I've written to/for her - and she always reads all the way through before peeking to see what picture I've left at the bottom (I leave it set on the screen from the beginning of that day, so she can't usually see it until she reads and scrolls)... and I love the fact that she's actually reading it --- reading is not exactly on her list of favourite activities. The 30 minutes of silent reading that I try to have her do each day..well, that doesn't always get done. It's like pulling teeth a lot of the time.. It's so important though - I just keep at it, offering her all sorts of reading materials (I don't care WHAT she reads - well, within reason.. I'm not about to send her into my Stephen King collection LOL) from mystery to joke books to nonfiction to whatever, to newspapers and magazines, etc etc etc. Heck, I'd be happy if she willingly read the back of the cereal box!
But, as she moans and groans and grumbles about it (even with the reading program we have, where she earns tokens for her reading and can 'cash in' her tokens for treats later), I try to sneak reading opportunities in everywhere else... like reading on Cinderstuff ;-)
It's hard sometimes - we're exact opposites in that area.. I love to read - as a child, I spent hours and hours at the library, curled up in the back room in an old ragged armchair, book in hand and a stack by my feet. Bike riding, swimming, sledding, those were all fun, but reading was better. Heck, I remember my parents getting mad at me because I wouldn't "go out and play" -- my stepmother told me a story about how she sent me out one day in a fit of frustration, one of those "GET OUT OF THE HOUSE AND GET SOME FRESH AIR DANG IT" sort of moments, only to come out later and find me curled up in the grass beside our PMQ, book in hand. I'd snuck it out under my shirt.
I don't have the same amount of time to read now, but when I do have free time, that's where my nose is usually buried.
Cindy, on the other hand, would scrub her bedroom floor before she would choose to read. A clean floor is a great thing, but I'd gladly allow the tumbledusts to breed in there if it meant she'd been carried off by a tale.
She's not me though. She's her own (wonderful!) little person and I realize that she's not likely to become a book lover. I can deal. But it *is* important and I won't drop that reading time - though I'm splitting it up... 15 minutes earlier in the day and 15 minutes in the evening. More manageable bits for her, I think. 15 minutes goes by pretty darn quick.
She does like being read to though, which is great - she sits and colours, draws, or cross-stitches while I read to her.. right now, we're reading Little House on the Prairie - a book I remember fondly from about the age of 8 or so, and although it was a bit slow in the start, she's gotten interested in what is going on with the characters. Some would think that it's "young" for 11 years old/grade 6, but she's enjoying the story and our time together doing that, so I don't care that the material may be "young" -- besides that, she's taken an interest in how things were "way back then" and it's spawned some self directed research on her part, learning how people in those days lived. Can't ask for more than that - the child's curiosity is piqued and she's going off to find answers to her questions (though sometimes her 'research' is to just ask me LOL .. but as I don't have all the answers handy, I'll have her sit with me while we search online.)
Ha. I just looked closer at the link I gave for the book, and there's mention in the article about a Japanese animated version in the 70's - I had no idea that existed...I wonder what the chances of finding that anywhere now would be...
Right now, I need to get off here and go round her up - she's cooking Korean BBQ'd Hamburgers for supper tonight as a day-late final bit of our Korea week (we ate at our friend's place on Sunday, which is when we usually do that)... we had originally chosen Korean style Noodles with Vegetables, but upon further investigation, Miss Cinders decided that she wouldn't really like that..so she chose the hamburger one instead... I don't know how authentic that is, but eh.. at least she's likely to eat her hard work this way. ;-)
While modern Korean homes now have a more western kitchen/dining room with high tables and chairs, often meals will be served to a low table with the diners sitting on cushions on the floor.
I also have to move the coffee table into the kitchen. Miss Cinders insists.
>^..^<
3 comments:
And that, Miss Moly, is why I get up at 4am most mornings or I couldn't keep up with myself ~ well I can't anyway but it would only be worse if I didn't. Now Ditz's ADD means she finds concentrating low enough to read something of a problem ~ & she's super fussy ~ but at least she reads well. Best of British.
I saw you mention before about Ditz having ADD - I've often said (and had it said to me) that if I took Cindy to the pediatrician here, he'd probably tag her with it as well. Easily distracted, concentration issues (though she *can* concentrate, it depends on the activity), difficulties with organisation, & hyperactivity are all things that everyone sees in her.
But then again, aside from the concentration issue, they describe me as well :-P .... which is why, back when I was 17 (I'm 30), I was tagged with it and given ritalin... that was an interesting time - it made me "hyper focused" and took away my appetite, so I lost 20 lbs and built a bazillion puzzles. I normally stayed as far from puzzles as I could. Never been back on the stuff.
I don't know. There's millions of kids every year who are tagged with ADD or ADHD and put on all sorts of drugs.. it's scary. I'm sure that the disorder exists, I just think that it's way way WAY over-diagnosed. It seems like every second or third person I know has one of their kids tagged with ADD and on those drugs.
Hmm, it's early here and I'm actually quite distracted myself at the moment (we're going skiing today) so I hope this is coming out sensibly and not offensively, given that you have a child diagnosed with it! Oy. I'm rambling LOL. I'm just thinking out loud here....
No Ritalin in this house & all mine have versions of add. It's the hyper ones who really drive me bonkers. I'm the quiet placid sort. lol. Ditz only has focus issues but she's a visual/spatial learner ~ time management/organizational problemsas well. We play soccer so we have some chance of making the boats we're always sprinting for! Besides I've always found mine can be incredibly focused when they're interested enough. Mostly I'm competing with everything else in their world.
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