As Read By...

This morning Buttons asked if I would read The Little Red Hen to her. I was on my way to the "water closet" and let her know I would happily read it afterward. "The words are easy for me, mama, so I'll read it myself" she told me proudly. I let her know she could read it aloud to me. As I'm sitting down, she pulls up a stool next to me and reads. Once finished with the "w.c.", we move onto the bed where I offer to read the rest. She thinks about it and tells me she'd like to read it to me, but would like me to hold it for her.

I wish I could make an audio cd of The Little Red Hen as read by Buttons. She had the phrasing down, the tone and the voices of the animals (which sound very similar to the voices I use) . You know the story, right? The little red hen finds a grain of wheat and asks the duck, the goose, the cat and the pig if they would like to help her plant, reap, carry, or bake it and they turn her down each time except when she asks who would like to eat it with her. After they all reply "yes", she responds "no, I'll do it myself". The take away message is of course intended to be if you don't help with the work, you don't get to help with the fun stuff at the end. After finishing the story, Buttons tells us the hen is not very nice to say no and she should have said "no thank you". We explain her reasons but agree that the nice thing would have been to share or at the very least not offer and then say no. I'm glad she gets that.

Just when I begin to think how grown up she is, she asks me to read it to her again, but I guess no matter what age we are, we always like having a book read to us. Snuggling in bed having her read that story to me before she marches off to school was certainly a gift to treasure.