I’ve gone on and on and on over the years about parents teaching their children to read. It’s a freaking no-brainer if you want your child to be really successful in school. I’ve not written about it much lately.
So why am I writing about it again? A couple of reasons.
First, Ella recently took the ACT, and her reading score was insanely good. I won’t tell you the score because that would just seem like bragging. It is truly the culmination of a 17-year experiment in teaching reading.
But an even better reason is what she is choosing to read.
She watched the movie The Hunchback of Notre Dame a week or so ago. I told her that the book is much different from the movie and gave her a couple of hints as to why. She’s never really listened to me when I recommended the classics to her other than Fahrenheit 451 and The Road last summer. That was only because they were on her school summer reading list. She loved them both.
But she listened this time and checked out The Hunchback of Notre Dame. About 80 pages in she came into my office just laughing her behind off. I didn’t recall it being a comedy, but the way she described the scene that made her laugh, I got it. I’ve been getting updates on the book over the last two days along with the repeated comment, “It is so good!” She even apologized for coming to talk to me about it so often.
That’s another benefit, we had some great discussions about the themes in the book. That’s the thing about the classics; they contain a lot of timeless themes.
Ella finished the book this evening, after two days of intensive reading. I enjoyed her briefing me on it and having my memories of the book come flooding back. I read it over 25 years ago while teaching first grade. I remember that because I advised my students how the movie is very different from the movie.
A big part of Ella’s enjoyment is how Victor Hugo writes. Her reading ability is instrumental in her being able to enjoy his writing because it is not easy. Many new vocabulary words for Ella.
We talked about how the classics are classics because of the quality of the writing and the themes involved in the books. It must be quality, or it would never be a classic and the themes have to be ones people care about, or we wouldn’t still be reading them.
Ella even said her phone is so boring compared to reading good books. That came up because, of course, I had to point out how much better reading is than sitting on a phone all day.
Tomorrow Ella is headed to Barnes and Noble to buy a book called The Monk. I’ve never heard of this one, but it is a classic. Questionable themes in that one, but she is 17 years old now so I’m not going to stop her from reading it.
When she finishes that one, she is going to finish Crime and Punishment which she started last summer. Then she needs to read The Great Gatsby which is her summer reading assignment for school.
Can’t tell you how much this warms my heart. Both as a fellow reader and because of all that work we have done over the years, to ensure she is a great reader, that enables her to enjoy these books so much.
