Go, Dash, Go

It's still Spring Break, you know. I mean, the husband came home and all that, which was nice because now I feel like I can breathe again - not that I was asphyxiating for lack of him, but just that when it's me and only me with the kids, there's no safety net, no room to manouevre, no end of the day in sight - but on the other hand, now he's at work and I'm still here with two children, one of whom might be asleep for a scant hour in the afternoon if I'm lucky. At least the weather's nice.

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We were given a copy of Go, Dog, Go for Mabel's second birthday. It was sort of an in-joke from the friend who gave it to her, because her son loved it and was always excited to go to a party because the dogs in the book go to a party in a tree at the end. He was thrilled to be invited to her birthday party, so we got the book. To be honest, I didn't think much of it - boring, basic, and without even a rhyme to pull it along for the poor benighted adult reader. I saw it as inferior, wannabe Seuss.

But now, I get it. Dash is at the point where he can sound out three-or-four-letter words pretty well, but even our "Beginner" I-Can-Read book was too hard - and babyish - for him, with its proliferation of hard words like "whose" and "mouse". He was badgering me to make a book for him on my computer, composed entirely of words he knows. (And what a thrilling epic that would be.) But then I thought that we must, surely, have some books that would work that way. One Fish, Two Fish, maybe, or Go, Dog, Go.

So I pulled it off the shelf a week ago, and this morning, after three or four sessions, he finished it. (It's quite a long book, you know.) Okay, so the narrative isn't exactly engaging for those of us used to something more at the level of historical fiction or true crime, but as far as he's concerned, it's the best book ever written. And watching him work through from the first, simplest page through the antics of those crazy dogs with their hats and their boats and their cars - well, I have a new appreciation for the story. More importantly, I can see how each page's words build on the learning in the pages before, so that he learns "out" and on the next page comes to "around", with the same -ou- sound, but a bit more of a challenge.

I'm not saying he got every word himself right off the bat - I helped when he got stuck - but the repetition within the book, and created by starting at the beginning again every time, made it easier for him. This morning he ran upstairs excitedly to find the book and reached the very last page, jubilant.

As boring books go, I'm starting to really like this one.