Books impart knowledge
Even to bumbling toddlers
“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go!” - Dr. Seuss
My daughter is busy learning about the world she inhabits. She is one and a half and curious about everything. She practices her jumps, testing the capabilities and limits of her body, imagines her stuffed animals and figurines live in a world of their own, and depicts her observations of life, mostly what her dada is up to, through linework made with chalk and markers.
Every day, she plops herself in my lap, requesting that I read one of her favorite books—Brown Bear, Brown Bear, Hop on Pop, ABC: An Amazing Alphabet Book, the Fuzzy Duckling… In her own choppy English she can tell me the title of the book she wants me to read, points to and says the words or sounds of objects she knows, and anticipates her favorite parts. Watching her enjoy books, as a book-lover myself, melts my heart.
Her vocabulary is developing rapidly. She is working hard to say the words she thinks are most important, such as baby, cat, cheese, and pasta, as well as some that have little to no connection to her every-day life, like duck and spear. She is not yet learning to read, but she is certainly learning from the books I read to her—and it’s pretty amazing to witness, I must say. We don’t need battery-operated farm animals for her to learn the sounds that animals make, or buttons on every toy to say the colors, or voice-activated puzzles to learn numbers. Books teach these things.
My daughter learned the parts of her body from a Winnie the Pooh book, the sounds of farm animals from one of her bedtime stories, and she is working on letter sounds by reading Dr. Seuss’s ABC book. Certainly, I aid in her learning, but mostly by reiterating what I have read to her. Books kick off the process of learning.
Toys and other tactile materials that children can manipulate serve a purpose. Knowing how something works and how to use it requires tinkering and, well, using it, but when it comes to young children, books are often underrated in their ability to impart knowledge.
Most people would agree that learning how to read is one of the most important, if not the most important, educational endeavors we take on in our lives. We can watch all of the videos that we want, but it will not replace reading in the hierarchy of importance. Reading is the means to achieve many ends. It is the gateway to knowledge. Any number of topics and personal goals are available through the written word.
Thus, considering what children read becomes of utmost importance. Watching my daughter develop her vocabulary and learn about the world through books at such a young age puts me on high alert regarding what she reads. At this stage in her development, I want to cultivate a love of reading and allow her access to any number of books on our bookshelf—assuming they are not easily ripped apart by toddler hands. But my husband and I stock the bookshelf. We are the ones who decide from what books she learns. Later in life, she might choose books I think are unworthy of her time, and we’ll cross that road when we get there, but for now, I’m going to be choosy.
Curating a library for children isn’t about depriving them of access to information. My intention is to ensure that my daughter, given the little time we all have in life and her desire to learn everything she can about the world she inhabits, is browsing, listening to, and learning from, and eventually reading, good books.
“Education in the Mommiverse” is a section of EduThirdSpace: The Newsletter where writing about what it means to get and be educated through the eyes of a parent is published.