There are moments as a parent when your child totally takes you by surprise and we had one of those recently.
We were all having dinner, asking the kids what had happened in their day.
Joe starts (age 6).
“Today we read a poem.”
“What was it about?”
“A frog.”
Everyone started offering up lines -
The frog was in a bog.
He fell off a log.
Someone made up a line about a dog.
Joe looks up and says, “Would you like to hear it?”
“Yes please!”
He recited the poem word for word.
A poem written in 1896.
A poem which which included the word epithets.
Yes, epithets.
Correctly said.
Correctly used.
I word, I admit, I later looked up!
This is the thing about kids, they don’t need things dumbed down. They start life knowing no words. They are experts at hearing things they don’t understand.
They learn by exposure. The greater variety of language we can expose them to the better.
I mean let’s be honest - how many technical, vehicle related words do your little vehicle lovers know?
We deliberately included a wide variety of language in the
Where Are You Going Today? books, and the ‘frog poem’ moment reinforced that I still think this is right. To a young child learning words, all words are just a collection of sounds which are given meaning.
I think books are an opportunity to open up discussion, to build interest and curiosity. To extend language and knowledge. We hope this is what the Where Are You Going Today? books do.
Have a good week!
Rachel x
P.S. I have included the frog poem below incase you’re interested!
The Frog (1896)
Be kind and tender to the Frog,
And do not call him names,
As ‘Slimy skin,’ or ‘Polly-wog,’
Or likewise ‘Ugly James,’
Or ‘Gape-a-grin,’ or ‘Toad-gone-wrong,’
Or ‘Billy Bandy-knees’:
The Frog is justly sensitive
To epithets like these.
No animal will more repay
A treatment kind and fair;
At least so lonely people say
Who keep a frog (and, by the way,
They are extremely rare).
Hilaire Belloc