Tonight I babysat my 1 1/2 year old nephew. I arrived right around his bed time. After the normal small freak out about mom and dad going out, he settled in and we got ready for bed. We started to read.
And we read...oh boy did we read...I even managed some very poorly read Portugese children's books (my sister in law is Portugese)
Until finally he pointed to his crib, I put him in, he plunked himself down, and went right to sleep.
And it lead me to my next blog post.
The joy of the book.
In 20-30 years time it sounds like we will have moved into e-readers and ebooks almost completely. But for some reason...despite my love of 21C learning and embracing as often as I can...I cannot seem to get past the idea of a physical book.
In particular, reading to kids. You see...tonight...my nephew lay on my chest as I rocked him, and he and I picked books together, turned pages, felt the texture, smelled the book on each page turn and watched the beautiful colors of each rich page go by.
And I haven't found the same experience with an ereader.
Swiping a screen with my nephew isn't the same. Experiencing a backlight to show the color of pages is far different from the natural colored pages of a book.
I see the value in the ereader, like any other 21C tool but nothing can trade my childhood memories of my brother and I having a good night story read to us by our father and mother each night. Nothing can trade the routines that my brother and sister-in-law have of reading a book to Samuel each night before he falls asleep.
So, though I love the idea of an ereader, you won't find me using one with my nephews just yet. It's not the same senses. It's name the same on the eyes. It's not the same reading experience.
In my classroom though, I don't restrict them as much. I like to see my kids reading books. If an ereader engages them more, if it causes them to read more...then go for it. Read to your heart's content. But I also encourage them to get the experience of a book. The black smudges on your fingers because you've been reading that long. and the accomplishment of going page to page and see it to the end.
I want my students to experience that too. I don't want them to become reliant on their ereaders. I want them to have a full, rich, reading experience.
At the end of the day though, An ereader needs to be plugged in; a book, on the other hand, only runs out of power when you close it and put it down.
No wires required.
And we read...oh boy did we read...I even managed some very poorly read Portugese children's books (my sister in law is Portugese)
Until finally he pointed to his crib, I put him in, he plunked himself down, and went right to sleep.
And it lead me to my next blog post.
The joy of the book.
In 20-30 years time it sounds like we will have moved into e-readers and ebooks almost completely. But for some reason...despite my love of 21C learning and embracing as often as I can...I cannot seem to get past the idea of a physical book.
In particular, reading to kids. You see...tonight...my nephew lay on my chest as I rocked him, and he and I picked books together, turned pages, felt the texture, smelled the book on each page turn and watched the beautiful colors of each rich page go by.
And I haven't found the same experience with an ereader.
Swiping a screen with my nephew isn't the same. Experiencing a backlight to show the color of pages is far different from the natural colored pages of a book.
I see the value in the ereader, like any other 21C tool but nothing can trade my childhood memories of my brother and I having a good night story read to us by our father and mother each night. Nothing can trade the routines that my brother and sister-in-law have of reading a book to Samuel each night before he falls asleep.
So, though I love the idea of an ereader, you won't find me using one with my nephews just yet. It's not the same senses. It's name the same on the eyes. It's not the same reading experience.
In my classroom though, I don't restrict them as much. I like to see my kids reading books. If an ereader engages them more, if it causes them to read more...then go for it. Read to your heart's content. But I also encourage them to get the experience of a book. The black smudges on your fingers because you've been reading that long. and the accomplishment of going page to page and see it to the end.
I want my students to experience that too. I don't want them to become reliant on their ereaders. I want them to have a full, rich, reading experience.
At the end of the day though, An ereader needs to be plugged in; a book, on the other hand, only runs out of power when you close it and put it down.
No wires required.
portugUese ;)
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