Article by Wendy McCance
My kids are growing up way too quick for my liking. My youngest is in his last year of elementary school and each time I walk through the halls of his school, I get a little sad thinking about how many more times I might walk through his grade school. I have been trying desperately to hang on to the early years and was thrilled to discover that my son still likes a story read to him at bedtime.
I had been looking through our bookcase sorting out the books that were just too childish for my kids tastes and stumbled upon the Complete Works of Winnie the Pooh. I don’t know how this happened, but this poor book had been overlooked all of these years. I don’t believe any of the kids ever read even one chapter of this book. That night when I was getting the kids ready for bed, I mentioned that if they hurried up and brushed their teeth, I would read them a story before bed. My oldest child (16yrs old) didn’t respond - no surprise. My second oldest child said thanks anyways, but she had downloaded a book on her Kindle that she was looking forward to reading in bed. My son, wonderful kid that he is, appeased his aging mom and said he wanted to have a book read to him.
My heart soared to be able to have what I knew was one of my last chances to enjoy the ritual of snuggling with one of the kids while reading them a story. I loved the contentedness that would overtake them and the insistence to move slightly so they could get a better view of the pictures in the book.
So here I was waiting for my son to finish brushing his teeth so that I could read to him. I was holding this huge book of stories of Winnie the Pooh when I got a brilliant idea. I would read my son a chapter a night which would prolong the moments of being able to read to my son.
That night, the world of Winnie the Pooh opened up to my son. Turns out, he loves our time together reading and thoroughly enjoys the story. That first night he found several very funny moments, his favorite being the part where Christopher Robin goes up to bed dragging Pooh behind him. My son immediately saw the humor as he heard it being read as Christopher Robin went up to bed dragging poo behind him (go figure, he’s a grade school boy who gets a kick out of poo humor).
So now each night bedtime comes around, my son races upstairs to brush his teeth and then calls down to let me know he’s ready for his story. I know I am running out of time and soon enough he will feel to old to have a story read to him. In the meantime, I am enjoying our time together and will have some beautiful memories of this special time spent with him.
Wendy McCance
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