One of the small changes I made to mark the start of Oscar’s kindergarten year at home: ending the schoolwork session each day by cuddling together and reading a couple of nonfiction books from the library. I plan to repeat each one two or three times before they go back.
Today I picked up nine books to last us through the next two or three weeks. I got a broad selection, hoping to find out what sort of things interest him. We have a book on hurricanes; a biography of George Washington; a book about bridges; one about postal workers and how the mail gets around; "Energy Makes Things Happen"; a story about the legend of Johnny Appleseed (what, incidentally, captivates children’s librarians so much about Johnny Appleseed? There had to be six books about JA in the tiny branch library, and I remember there being a lot in my elementary school library twenty years ago); a book about frogs, and a book about wetlands.
Besides all these, we got one called Who Eats What? Food Chains and Food Webs by Patricia Lauber, part of the "Let’s-Read-And-Find-Out Science Series" (which I find to be reliably interesting and only a little bit oversimplified). I read it to him today. It must have piqued his interest; a little later he came to me, munching an apple, and wanting crayons and paper to draw a food chain.
I expected him to draw "boy eats apple," but instead he drew two indistinct blobs, one with an arrow pointing to the other.
Tell me about your food chain, I said.
It shows an antibody eating a germ, he said cheerfully.
I blame "Let’s-Read-And-Find-Out Science" Germs Make Me Sick!
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