Moms of Boys
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Sharon's Blog : Boys & reading
Last Friday, I was on the phone with someone about a communications project I’m working on with my church when I glanced at my watch and realized Jason, my 7-year-old was not home from school yet. His bus usually dropped him at 4 or a little after, and it was 4:15. Most days, I’m aware of the time and am listening for the bus to stop up the street. So I told the person I was talking to that I had to check on my son. I asked my older two boys (ages 16 and 13) if Jason had come inside and possibly gone back out to play without my knowing, but I hadn’t heard any sibling fights (which usually escalate when Jason gets home, especially if someone has eaten the last of the Bagel Bites). No, he had not come in, the boys said. I went to the refrigerator to get the school magnet with the phone number on it so I could call and see what had happened to the bus. As any parent knows, this is about the time you start to worry, and your mind starts racing, even thinking back to remember if there’d been any sirens in the past few minutes. That feeling in the pit of your stomach. By this time it was 4:20.
Before calling the school, I walked to the front door again and looked out toward the bus stop one more time. And there he was, running down the sidewalk and across our yard. I was so glad to see the little guys. I gave him a hug when he came in and asked what had happened to the bus. Did it break down?
Was the bus late picking them up?
“Well,” he began to explain, making his big blue eyes even wider, “I was reading my book on the bus, and I forgot to get off.”
“You forgot to get off the bus?” I repeated.
He shrugged. “I was reading my book.”
“So what did you do?"
“I told the bus driver that I forgot and she told me she’d take me back home after she finished the rest of the route.” Just what a school bus driver would like to do on a Friday afternoon, I’m sure. I laughed about it and told Jason that next time he reads on the bus to please tell another student beforehand to remind him to get off the bus.
I have to say a part of me felt very good that he was so engrossed in his book that he was oblivious to anything else (of course the other guys in my house, including my husband, don’t need to be reading a book to be totally oblivious). To be fair, the book wasn’t something like “The Story of Helen Keller” or something else biographical; it was one of these popular books in a series called “The Diary of Wimpy Kid.” But it was a BOOK. My middle son never liked to read, while my oldest was an avid reader who still likes to read certain books; but, I knew that the love of reading made reading and school overall easier. My middle son does fine in school, but the skills needed to succeed don’t come as naturally to him as they do to my oldest, due to, I firmly believe, the fact that he doesn’t like to read. He did go through a time a while back when he liked Matt Christopher sports books, but he hasn’t shown any interest in outside of class reading in a long time. I encourage him to read but I don’t pressure him to do so because that would make him dislike it more.
I have some links on this site about boys and reading that you might want to check out.
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