Spreading the Reading Virus

We started the new year with an intention to spread the virus of reading. We were happy to see a review of four of our books on Saffron Tree as we bid goodbye to 2009.

Via Saffron Tree

When we go out on our after-dinner walks (sometimes), my daughter likes pointing out – “Mama, see the moon is walking with us” , and then my son asks,”Why is the moon not staying at one place, how can it be moving with every person who is walking?” These questions amuse me. I think all children have these basic questions in their minds and try to find the logical answers which their innocent minds best understand.

In these books, an inquisitive little boy asks his elder sister many questions and the sister encourages him to think first what could be the reason of these things happening a certain way? He tries to think of all possible reasons from his understanding of the world, which is mainly based on the stories he must have heard from here and there.

Sister, Sister Where Does The Sun Go At Night? His imagination makes him see the similarity between his father and the sun. Probably the big sun gets tired by the end of the day as all fathers do and goes to bed where his wife covers him with a heavy stars studded blanket so that his snoring doesn’t disturb anybody. (My children think a blanket with these specifications might do the trick to keep their father’s snoring a little less audible too.) But if this is not the correct reason then maybe the sun slides down in the ocean, but what will the sun do under the sea?

After he has explored all possible flights of his imagination, his sister does tell him whatever she has read in the books, trying to explain the physical phenomena – scattering of light, rotation of earth, gravity and thundering, in a simple way.

While reading these books to my children, I found it a good time to ask them what do they think. A great opportunity to peep into their minds, and to accompany them in their pursuit of finding answers to such queries. While teaching them the routine stuff, we tend to overlook the significance of free flow of thoughts, not bothering about the correctness of the same that much.

On the last page there are simple experiments explained to show the phenomena.

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Read reviews written by other bloggers here and here.