What triggered last week’s string of family reading nights was the purchase of a couple of books (the learning-to-read kind) for the kids despite having just placed an order with Scholastic for some new books. Cal had been complaining, justifiably so, about his selection at home; so I thought a new book while we wait for the order come in might ward off any ugliness on the verge of happening. For Cal, I bought a Star Wars book with pictures of the original characters (i.e. not the Clone Wars series); and for Ella, I avoided the Princess books and bought a Curious George book. I thought Cal might enjoy that one, too.
On family reading nights, Dan and I actually don’t read – the kids do. At 5, Cal’s actually a pretty decent reader and was able to read his new Star Wars book on his own with no prep or coaching to get him through it. The book is primarily about Luke and his relationship with other Star Wars characters and contains single-sentence pages, just the right amount of detail for the mixed crowd.
It probably doesn’t need to be said that, at 3, Ella cannot read, per se. If she’s had a story read to her a time or two, she might be inclined to tell a shorter variation of it. If she hasn’t, she’ll make up her own story, leveraging the pictures and her creative mind to do so. During our string of family reading nights last week, we were all looking at the Curious George book for the first time, which meant we were getting the second flavor of Ella’s book reading.
Each night, this was pretty entertaining. Every time it started with, “George Morge” did something, I don’t recall exactly what, and I think it may have changed with each reading.
Once she started, all three of us listened intently to her. To not do so would be to miss out on some funny stuff. It’s a riot. With the first page “read,” she turned the page.
On the first and second nights, Ella next read, “George Morge buttoned his shirt,” or something about his shirt because the next thing we knew she the story involved “George Morge’s furry buttons.”
Bahahahahahaha! Furry buttons! We all laughed, which only encouraged her to talk more about these George Morge’s furry buttons. It was “furry buttons” this and “furry buttons” that. With every mention of “furry buttons,” we laughed; and with every laugh, Ella kept the story about these “furry buttons.”
By the third family reading night, Ella had apparently decided to abandon (or possibly forgot) the “furry buttons” angle of the story and talked about “George Morge” having done something like a “venture.”
I didn’t know what this was. “Adventure?” I tried.
“No, Venture,” she responded.
“Venture?” I asked.
“No, Venture,” she responded, enunciating more but saying it the same way. This cracks me up. Clearly she thinks she’s pronouncing a word differently than how she’s saying it.
Cal doesn’t forget anything and is a stickler for routine. So he was chomping at the bit to jump in and get Ella to talk about George’s “furry buttons” again. So while Ella and I were having our “Venture-Venture” back-and-forth, Cal found his way into the chatter with, “FURRY BUTTONS! BAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”
With this, Ella was reminded of the furry-button angle of the story and continued telling the story, this time saying something about “George Morge” and his “furry buttons” and “furry cuttons,” whatever those are. We all laughed, including Ella.
To this day, I still haven't read the real story. I am curious to know what it is but am equally satisfied with Ella's rendition of it.
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