Normally I write about college life. My college life as a graduate student and as an instructor. Occasionally high school is thrown in there but I rarely talk about anything younger. Today I actually have something to share in that area. If you weren’t aware I am also a (relatively) new parent. My wife and I had our first and I’m the Fatherhood blogger here at Families.com. Our son has provided many great things to write about over the past year (he’s just turned one in fact) but he just recently demonstrated the importance of learning to me and I’d like to share it with you.
When I’m teaching (and when I’m being a student) the most impressive moments are when a lightbulb goes off. As a teacher it is exciting because your student has just figured something out. As a student you just realized it for yourself. Over the past year my wife and I have been reading to our son. Books of various levels have been read aloud. Since I’m working on a PhD my son has been treated to some high level theory as well as his ABC’s. There have been books about body parts with funny monsters and books about binary opposites. All of these books familiarize our son with language (both spoken and written). The other day he proved that he was learning.
I was reading, for the gazillionth time, a rhyming ABC book with various amusing examples of things (and loads of pictures) that start with those letters along the way. My son, while we were on the “T’s,” took the book and turned it back to the “B’s.” He took his pointer finger and indicated the picture of a baby and said “Bay-be.” Normally I would applaud him or hug him or something to indicate that he’d done something amazing but I was blown away. Speechless. All of this is to say that learning starts young — so start now.