DUMB.

"Books are dumb. Books are SOOOOO DUMB. They are so dumb, why did people even make them? DUMB."

I had to agree. Dumb books. Full of Dumb pictures of Dumb animals.

You see looking at some (dumb) books was the answer to the question, "can I watch a movie tonight before bed?" So you see the books were Dumb.

We looked at the (dumb) books together, making sure to comment on all the Dumb pictures.
"Dumb dog. Dumb cat. Dumb."
"Dumb bird. Dumb flamingo. Dumb."
"Dumb penguins. All these penguins are dumb. wait. Except this one, this cute baby one is not dumb."
"Dumb duck. Dumb hippos bum."
"Dumb.... hey, wait a minute, this guinea pig is halfway cool, halfway dumb."
"But all These pictures, on this page?.... Dumb."
"Oooohhhhh, but this one, this owl. He is really cool."
"And hey, what on this page do you think is the only cool one?"
"The cougar. I think the cougar is awesome."
Our Dumb adventure came to a close with a very Dumb zebra.
"Dumb Zebra."



What kind of sense does this make?! Aren't I supposed to be fostering a "love of reading" a "love of books"? My internal voice was freaking out.... and I was telling it to shut-up. DUMB, had given my son a voice tonight. It had Empowered him to look at books with me, when what he wanted to be doing, was watch a show.

Somewhere along the natural learning adventure, I realized I had to stop trying to force things. Trying to force learning, force behavior, force compliance. Forcing is Dumb. And the connection we had while reading Dumb books, was anything but Dumb. All the giggling, wasn't Dumb. Our enjoyable reading time would have been so de-railed if we had of focused on Dumb being a "Bad word." If we had of given DUMB all the power and attention. If we had of come to the rescue of the books! Can you imagine: "Books aren't dumb! Books are great! I love books, look at all these cool pictures?!"


No we have an agreement. Books are DUMB.