My son is a very active boy. He loves to move, to climb, to explore. He loves playing with his blocks and making up his own movies in his mind, complete with sound effects. I was just frustrated that he didn't seem to love books as much as I did. I was reading to him as early as when he was still in my tummy. I never lacked for books (both brand new and secondhand) that I would read aloud to him as much as I could. But while he would be interested for a while (some of his favorites were the Baby Loves Jazz series and Ten Apples Up On Top by Dr. Seuss), he would always prefer active play versus reading together. I figured that it was just part of his personality.

Badger Gets Introduced To The Very Busy Spider

However, one day, out of the blue, my cousin-in-law, Joyce (an early childhood educator and a believer in the  Multiple Intelligences theory) gave Badger The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle, a lift-the-flap book. For some reason, Badger really, really loved the book so much. It might have been the confluence of several factors: his age (he's three and a half already), his love for Spider Man and his established familiarity with the alphabet (because of his running interest in Starfall.com).

The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle was an old book that was well-loved by Joyce's kids. She decided that it was time for the book to have a new home.  She just texted me that she passed by our home and gave the book to Badger. And that was it. In my mind, I told myself that it would join the rest of the books on his bookshelf. However, that night, when I came home, Badger was eager for me to read "Spider Man" with him. At first, I misunderstood. So, I got his Spider Man coloring book. But he kept saying no. Finally, yaya gave me the book, telling me it was new but he seemed to love it.

A Boring, Repetitive Book for Mommy

When we read the book together, I didn't think much of the story. I actually thought it was kind of boring and repetitive. There was a very busy spider and she was spinning her web. She landed on a fence post in a farm yard and one by one, animals would invite her to do something but she would always decline because she was too busy spinning her web until finally, when the web is complete, she catches a fly. Badger would lift the flap every time the spider wouldn't answer the animal. As we continued reading the book night after night (yes, he was obsessed with it), Badger would preempt me and tell me the lines, especially the repetitive lines about the spider.

The Magical Moment

At first, I thought that he just memorized the lines because we kept reading it every night. However, one lazy Saturday morning, I left Starfall.com on while I took a nap. Badger started shaking me. "Mommy, Mommy, wake up! Wake up!" His eyes were as large as saucers. He said, "Mommy, spider is spinning her web!" He called my attention to the computer screen. He pointed to the words "spider" and said "spider!" excitedly. He recognized the word! Plus he also recognized the words "her" and "web." Now, that was proof for me. He recognized the words elsewhere. I was so happy and proud of him.

While it seems repetitive and boring to me, I don't complain anymore that he wants to read The Very Busy Spider. That's what got him to read in the first place. He is starting to distinguish the other words and he likes telling the story to me (instead of the othe way around). I asked Joyce about it and she said that Eric Carle's books are actually great for preschoolers. While it seems like an ordinary (and even boring) story, it actually applies a lot of concepts that are used in early childhood education for reading such as repetition (story pattern), large font for easy letter recognition, attractive pictures to help association of the words with images and just enough introduction of new animals and descriptions to help expand his vocabulary.

Smart Reading Tips for Parents

From the U.S. Department of Education website, I got the following reading tips for parents that jive with what I learned from my own experience with Badger:

• Invite a child to read with you every day.
• When reading a book where the print is large, point word by word as you read. This will help the child learn that reading goes from left to right and understand that the word he or she says is the word he or she sees.
• Read a child's favorite book over and over again.
• Read many stories with rhyming words and lines that repeat. Invite the child to join in on these parts. Point, word by word, as he or she reads along with you.
• Discuss new words. For example, "This big house is called a palace. Who do you think lives in a palace?"
• Stop and ask about the pictures and about what is happening in the story.
• Read from a variety of children's books, including fairy tales, song books, poems, and information books.

This is a picture of Badger reading his worn out but well-loved book, The Very Busy Spider.
 

Do you have any reading stories to share with us? Does your child have a favorite book that he loves to read over and over again? Leave a comment below.

Image of The Very Busy Spider from CarleMuseum.org.