A First
We love a good read-a-loud over here. This year I have tried to be more intentional about reading aloud, especially to Seth, for whom books are generally considered to be anathema. We're trying to change that, so I've been on a quest to find really funny books if possible, or ones about animals.
I read aloud Mr. Popper's Penguins at the beginning of the year, remembering the rolling-on-the-floor laughter Noah and I shared when he was younger. You can read about that here. Seth liked it okay, but it didn't elicit any laughter at any part. Not even a smile.
After that we jumped into Winnie the Pooh, which also was a huge success when Noah was little. Still, even when I read aloud the passage about Piglet popping the balloon that he intended as a gift for Eeyore, Seth sat stone-faced while Noah and I doubled helplessly over with laughter, tears streaming down our faces. You have to take a minute and read that part:
"While all this was happening, Piglet had gone back to his own house to get Eeyore's balloon. He held it very tightly against himself, so that it shouldn't blow away, and he ran as fast as he could so as to get to Eeyore before Pooh did; for he thought that he would like to be the first one to give a present, just as if he had thought of it without being told by anybody. And running along, and thinking how pleased Eeyore would be, he didn't look where he was going...and suddenly put his foot in a rabbit hole, and fell down flat on his face.
BANG!!!???***!!!
Piglet lay there, wondering what had happened. At first he thought that the whole world had blown up; and then he thought that perhaps only the forest part of it had, and then he thought that perhaps only he had, and he was now on the moon or somewhere, and he would never see Christopher Robin or Pooh or Eeyore again. And then he thought, 'Well, even if I'm on the moon, I needn't be face downwards all the time,' so he got cautiously up and looked about him.
He was still in the Forest!
'Well, that's funny,' he thought. 'I wonder what that bang was. I couldn't have made such a noise just falling down. And where's my balloon? And what's that small piece of damp rag doing?'
It was the balloon!"
Well, anyway. We were having no progress getting Seth to really engage and enter in to the stories we were reading. Until yesterday. We started Pippi Longstocking a few days ago, and finally got a guffaw out of Seth when we read this part about being a Thing Finder in chapter 2:
" 'May we really take everything that we find?' asked Annika.
'Yes, everything that is lying on the ground,' said Pippi.
Presently they came to an old man lying asleep on the lawn outside his cottage.
'There,' said Pippi, 'that man is lying on the ground and we have found him. We'll take him!'
Tommy and Annika were utterly horrified.
'No, no, Pippi, we can't take an old gentleman! We couldn't possibly,' said Tommy. 'Anyway, whatever would we do with him?'
'What would we do with him? Oh, there are plenty of things we could do with him. We could keep him in a little rabbit hutch instead of a rabbit and feed him on dandelions. But if you don't want to, I don't care. Though it does bother me to think that some other Thing-Finder may come along and grab him.' "
I'd love to know what you're reading these days! Here is the list of chapter books we have read aloud so far since January:
Mr Popper's Penguins
Charlotte's Web
Winnie the Pooh
The House at Pooh Corner
The Boxcar Children
The Trumpet of the Swan
McBroom's Wonderful One-Acre Farm
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
Pippi Longstocking
I read aloud Mr. Popper's Penguins at the beginning of the year, remembering the rolling-on-the-floor laughter Noah and I shared when he was younger. You can read about that here. Seth liked it okay, but it didn't elicit any laughter at any part. Not even a smile.
After that we jumped into Winnie the Pooh, which also was a huge success when Noah was little. Still, even when I read aloud the passage about Piglet popping the balloon that he intended as a gift for Eeyore, Seth sat stone-faced while Noah and I doubled helplessly over with laughter, tears streaming down our faces. You have to take a minute and read that part:
"While all this was happening, Piglet had gone back to his own house to get Eeyore's balloon. He held it very tightly against himself, so that it shouldn't blow away, and he ran as fast as he could so as to get to Eeyore before Pooh did; for he thought that he would like to be the first one to give a present, just as if he had thought of it without being told by anybody. And running along, and thinking how pleased Eeyore would be, he didn't look where he was going...and suddenly put his foot in a rabbit hole, and fell down flat on his face.
BANG!!!???***!!!
Piglet lay there, wondering what had happened. At first he thought that the whole world had blown up; and then he thought that perhaps only the forest part of it had, and then he thought that perhaps only he had, and he was now on the moon or somewhere, and he would never see Christopher Robin or Pooh or Eeyore again. And then he thought, 'Well, even if I'm on the moon, I needn't be face downwards all the time,' so he got cautiously up and looked about him.
He was still in the Forest!
'Well, that's funny,' he thought. 'I wonder what that bang was. I couldn't have made such a noise just falling down. And where's my balloon? And what's that small piece of damp rag doing?'
It was the balloon!"
Well, anyway. We were having no progress getting Seth to really engage and enter in to the stories we were reading. Until yesterday. We started Pippi Longstocking a few days ago, and finally got a guffaw out of Seth when we read this part about being a Thing Finder in chapter 2:
" 'May we really take everything that we find?' asked Annika.
'Yes, everything that is lying on the ground,' said Pippi.
Presently they came to an old man lying asleep on the lawn outside his cottage.
'There,' said Pippi, 'that man is lying on the ground and we have found him. We'll take him!'
Tommy and Annika were utterly horrified.
'No, no, Pippi, we can't take an old gentleman! We couldn't possibly,' said Tommy. 'Anyway, whatever would we do with him?'
'What would we do with him? Oh, there are plenty of things we could do with him. We could keep him in a little rabbit hutch instead of a rabbit and feed him on dandelions. But if you don't want to, I don't care. Though it does bother me to think that some other Thing-Finder may come along and grab him.' "
I'd love to know what you're reading these days! Here is the list of chapter books we have read aloud so far since January:
Mr Popper's Penguins
Charlotte's Web
Winnie the Pooh
The House at Pooh Corner
The Boxcar Children
The Trumpet of the Swan
McBroom's Wonderful One-Acre Farm
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
Pippi Longstocking
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