Interruption
I told Skipper, who was deep in an enormous pile of library books, that I was going to the basement to exercise. "I'll be down there for about an hour," I said. "Okay," she said.
Half an hour later, I heard her running footsteps overhead, and then thundering down the stairs. I assumed something had happened, like maybe a package was delivered, or an injured pedestrian at the door needing help. "Mom!" she said, "listen to this awesome tongue twister! Two witches watched two watches. Which watch did each witch watch?" and then she ran back upstairs.
There's a huge stack of books on the living room floor, not all of which have tongue twisters. I've been putting a lot of books on hold for the girls lately, many of them unsubtle attempts to encourage them to recognize a variety of life experience by taking advantage of their baked-in a) love of reading and b) strong desire to empathize. Thumbs up from both of them for Number the Stars, Esperanza Rising and What the Moon Saw. Duchess liked Jazz Day. (Skipper independently checked out of her school library the books George and Wonder, and liked them both very much.) I put a library hold on The Hate U Give for Duchess,* but of course if it's in the house Skipper will read it too. This is a very privileged-educated-white-person approach (one that would be decried by my social-justice-focused coworker, who likes to tell me that "white women cry, black men die"), but I guess it's a starting place.
*Duchess asked me last year "Mom, the kids have been talking about Black Lives Matter and All Lives Matter. Which side should I be on?"
Half an hour later, I heard her running footsteps overhead, and then thundering down the stairs. I assumed something had happened, like maybe a package was delivered, or an injured pedestrian at the door needing help. "Mom!" she said, "listen to this awesome tongue twister! Two witches watched two watches. Which watch did each witch watch?" and then she ran back upstairs.
There's a huge stack of books on the living room floor, not all of which have tongue twisters. I've been putting a lot of books on hold for the girls lately, many of them unsubtle attempts to encourage them to recognize a variety of life experience by taking advantage of their baked-in a) love of reading and b) strong desire to empathize. Thumbs up from both of them for Number the Stars, Esperanza Rising and What the Moon Saw. Duchess liked Jazz Day. (Skipper independently checked out of her school library the books George and Wonder, and liked them both very much.) I put a library hold on The Hate U Give for Duchess,* but of course if it's in the house Skipper will read it too. This is a very privileged-educated-white-person approach (one that would be decried by my social-justice-focused coworker, who likes to tell me that "white women cry, black men die"), but I guess it's a starting place.
*Duchess asked me last year "Mom, the kids have been talking about Black Lives Matter and All Lives Matter. Which side should I be on?"
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