The Joy of Parenting - Reading to your kids

One of the great and time-honored traditions of being a parent is reading to your kids.  All the best experts in education agree that reading regularly to your kids is one of the best things you, as a parent, can do for your kid's education.  This remains true even after they can read on their own. In addition, if you make funny voices and really get into acting out the story, it can even be fun!  It could also be very embarassing if a video recorder should happen to be running at the time and your kids post the video to YouTube and email your boss.  No video.  Word to the wise.

So, when I found myself at home last night with my six year old, Rachel, with 20 minutes until we had to leave to pick up the older kid from her Tuesday dance classes, I thought reading would be the perfect thing to pass the time.  Well, reading or Guitar Hero III on the Wii, but I picked reading because, obviously, I'm an incredible parent.

I let Rachel pick the book and then settled into the couch to read.  Things were going well as the family in the story headed out for a short camping trip at Yellowstone park.  Yellowstone park is awesome. It was then that I read the following section:

"This big flat thing is bison poop. People call these buffalo chips."

"It looks hard," said Michael, "not squishy like poop."

"Fresh bison poop is squishy, " answered Dad, "but it dries out. You can tell how old it is by how hard it is." ***

I am totally not pulling your leg.  They said "bison poop!"  So, my question is, "Isn't Curious George still popular?"  I mean, by comparison, a monkey that lives with a man who always wears a big yellow hat and who goes around swallowing puzzle pieces and trashing the hospital's childrens ward seems somehow less....weird.  On second thought, a guy who always goes around wearing a big yellow hat treating a monkey like a kid still sounds a bit weird to me.

The book we were reading actually gets somewhat educational, as it talks about the poop and the tracks of a bunch of different animals that can be found in Yellowstone.  As a result,  if I run into Grizzly Bear poop in St. Louis, I'm ready!   I just hope that I can remember all that I've learned from the book.  I suppose I could photocopy the handy reference pages in the back that have an outline of the animal, their poop, and their tracks.  However, I'm guessing that would violate copyright laws.

Anyway, next time I'm picking out the book...perhaps a nice Berenstain Bear book. They live in a tree, you know! How cool is that? Plus, they never talk about poop, as far as I remember.

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*** from the book "Who Pooped in the Park?" by Gary D. Robson & illustrated by Elijah Brady Clark.  And yes, we apparently actually own the book. 

Comments

[Gregg's Mom]

Hey, we bought her that book when we were in Yellowstone. I debated a long time if I wanted to get it. It appears the workers there thought it was a great book. If you were hiking in Yellowstone, you would be able to tell which animals had been walking there by their um poop.

[Gregg's Mom]

Oh, and as I recall, Rachel was 2 at the time and this was at potty training time and a daily topic.

[Gregg]

Well, obviously, she still likes it! Also, I wouldn't assume that it is not still a daily topic for her.

There was an incident this morning that may make the blog, eventually.

[Jeannette]

I own a Walter the Farting Dog book.

And I don't have any children.

[Gregg]

Well, I'm complicit in this whole "problem", too. I gave my oldest daughter the book "The Day my Butt Went Psycho" shortly after she could read.

[Andrew Hull]

Small world. Gary Robson lives in Red Lodge Montana. My wife and I stopped into a small local book store on main street (I think Red Lodge has a population of about five thousand). We had a previous book of his. Much to the delight of my five year old daughter, Gary signed a copy just for her.

On my family's way to Glacier National Park a couple of weeks ago, The "Who Pooped in the Park" came up on the car drive. I never thought I would be so educated on bear scat!

Andrew Hull