Children watch. They see. They observe. They learn and model what they see.
I was a student while my boys were in my womb. Sometimes, when I was pregnant with them, I read aloud and prayed aloud. Later, they saw me studying on my days off from work. Mummy always has one or two exams to write! They saw me with my big textbooks, and they saw me go to work.
I wanted reading and learning to feel like parts of life, not chores. At first, I wondered if I should give them more cartoons, more games, and more trips to the park. I did not want them to become just like me. I wanted them to enjoy learning for their own sake. So I introduced it gradually, day after day.
On weekends, I take them to the library. There is a children’s section for reading and a separate little area with Legos, games, and toys. While they play, I have my book too, keeping one eye on them and the other on the page. They know their mom is an avid reader, and I think they have taken after me.
I read to them every day when I can, sometimes two or three books in a night or during the day. Weekdays are usually for bedtime stories; on weekends and holidays, we read during the day. We have tried online books, but now we have gone back to real, physical books. When the boys are home, they keep me busy reading to them. Sometimes they want another book before I have had enough time for my own reading.
My older son loved bedtime stories. Sometimes, after I put him to bed, he would get up, find a book, and try to read under the lamp. He was itching for the next page, trying to decipher the words on his own. He would study one line, then another, and sometimes try to hide the book under his pillow.
Teachers would ask me, “Do you know your child can read?”
“Yes,” I would say.
One teacher told me my child was among the one percent of students in the class who could read and write. “I don’t doubt that,” I said. They looked at me as though I did not understand how remarkable it was. I looked back, wondering why they were so surprised. I knew how much I had read to him and how I had taught him to write.
But my older son did surprise me.
One day, I was going to pick up my youngest son, and I picked up my older son first. My older son told me to go pick up his younger brother. Then he surprised me by asking if he could write me a letter. An adult gave him paper and a pen. He wrote, “Mommy, I love you every day and all day.”
I tried to hold myself together, but I burst out laughing, and the tears rolled down my face. I was glad I had managed to keep my decorum in public. I went home and laughed on the floor. That little letter nearly gave me a cardiac arrest—in the best way.
I had been reading with them, practicing letters and spelling, trying simple weekend mathematics, showing them a bit of the world map and teaching them about planets, and saying prayers and Psalms with them. I did not know how those little moments were adding up. I was simply encouraging them, day after day.
I want my boys to become their own people. I do not want to push them into being who I am, but I also do not want to underestimate what they can do. When a child becomes interested, I believe in a gentle nudge and giving them room to explore.
There is time for everything: school, reading, play, parks, swimming, singing, holidays, meals, sleep, and prayer. Learning belongs in that life, too. To me, the earlier children discover that learning can be enjoyable, the better.
I have heard that children learn from the womb. I am beginning to see that in my own life. Sometimes, when I was pregnant with my boys, I read aloud and prayed aloud. Now I see how curious they are, and they are doing well with their milestones. I would not be surprised if one day they became professors, writers, or something along those lines.
I was giving my boys gentle encouragement, never knowing one of those moments would surprise me so much that I would laugh until I cried.
By Joan Roberts
Foot note:
Proverbs 22:6
Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is d he shall not depart from it.
It’s at the early primordial stage children learn better, whatever they will someday imbibe as a habit that would look like their own regardless of the interplay of nature vs nurture.
It’s often a what you sow it’s what you reap.
I would add prayer is unavoidable in bringing up children after Gods own heart as well as teaching them elements of a successful life.
