Learning comes easier for some than for others. For me, thankfully, learning is unproblematic; there have been very few obstructions down my path of gaining knowledge. As a student, I sit in class, listening intently, and absorb the information. Why is that so? Why do some struggle more than others? Is it somehow connected to childhood?
As a youngster, I loved reading. I read books with the ferocity of a jungle cat, prowling the library and pouncing on books that struck my fancy. At Lincoln Trail Elementary, we had a program called Accelerated Reader, in which you would pick out a book from the library and be tested over it on the computer once you had finished reading. This became a favorite pastime of mine. I would test daily, sometimes multiple times daily, reading a book at school and then grabbing another to carry home and save for the following day.
My ravenous reading began before school, though. My mother tells me that once I learned how, I read everything I could get my tiny hands on. My personal favorites, though, were the books penned by the talented Dr. Seuss. His mastery of rhyming made me practically giddy, and I collected his books fanatically. My mother would sit and read them with me every night before bed.
But one night, I decided to read to her.
“Go on, pick a book to read,” my mother told me. I walked over to the little white shelves that housed my assortment of books. Scanning over the titles, I found my favorite one. I removed it from its other literary brethren and proceeded to walk back to the bed, where my mother lay. Next to my small bed, a nightstand held up my little white lamp, its bulb warmly lighting the room with a slightly yellow-tinted glow.
Upon seeing the book in my hands, my mother’...
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...ouldn’t exactly win, but it was a game nonetheless: I would yell out something to draw and then everyone would draw it. That simple.
I explained how to play to them and off we went.
“Draw a… cat!” I yelled, and we scribbled in our notebooks. Mine came out looking like a misshapen potato, and Mom’s looked like a passable cat, but my uncle’s was the best I had ever seen.
No matter what I called out—be it a pterodactyl, or a bicycle, or Godzilla—and no matter how hard I tried to match my uncle’s artistic prowess, the pencil in my seven-year-old hands couldn’t create such fine works of art as his.
So, I kept drawing.
I guess little moments like these have fueled my passion for just wanting to pick up a pencil and write (and draw) and read until my eyes give out. Being exposed to these things so early as a child set me up for an easier time in school than most.
I read a lot of the Junie B Jones book my mom brought home for me. I may not have been as fast as my family was, but for me I was fast enough. I had made my very first friends at the library and even though I knew they weren’t real I knew I always had characters in my books. My favorite place to this day is in any library surrounded by all my
Instead of mom reading children’s books to me, I read them to her. And if I stumbled upon something I didn’t know or understand, mom helped me out! Soon enough I started reading to her without stuttering of not knowing how to say a word. I started being able to sound out words easier and my fluency became much better than before. First grade came around and I started reading bigger books such as Junie B. Jones and also the Magic Treehouse books. Books became easier to read as I aged and the books I read were getting bigger and bigger. In 5th and 6th grade I read The Red Pyramid, The Throne of Fire, and The Serpents Shadow, a trilogy called The Kane Chronicles written by Rick Riordan. I thought these three books were the greatest three books ever written! I even thought they were better than the hunger games! Especially with the series being based around Egyptian gods and theology, and also managed to tie in kids around my age that I could relate to. Those books made me love reading more than I ever have and I would read them again if I had the time to. Once 8th grade came out along I decided to read a “big boy” book: DaVinci Code by Dan Brown. I thought I was so cool because I was reading a book that my parents have read. It has been the best book I have yet to read so far because it sparked my interest from the first sentence, to the last, there was intense suspense throughout the whole book and I could nonstop
The first time I began to draw, I drew stick figures and malformed animals and people. As I continued to grow and experience new things, I also improved in my art. From fifth grade to my senior year in high school, I realized a major difference in the way I drew, and also in what it meant to me. For me, drawing represented the growth I went through in life. Through the tough times, happy memories, and crushing defeats, these all accumulated and created my personality and
As a child, I have always been fond of reading books. My mother would read to me every single night before I went to bed and sometimes throughout the day. It was the most exciting time of the day when she would open the cabinet, with what seemed to be hundreds of feet tall, of endless books to choose from. When she read to me, I wanted nothing more than to read just like her. Together, we worked on reading every chance we had. Eventually I got better at reading alone and could not put a book down. Instead of playing outside with my brothers during the Summer, I would stay inside in complete silence and just read. I remember going to the library with my mom on Saturdays, and staying the entire day. I looked forward to it each and every week.
My mother always makes sure to remind me that when I was a child, she made me become a reader. Every night, she would read a book to sister and I. We were always encouraged to read reminded of how important it was to be literate. At that age, I thought that being 'literate' was just being able to read and spell your name. Later on, I discovered that literacy is so much more complex and interesting. At the age of 10, I discovered a book series titles "The Amazing Days of Abbey Hayes." The stories were written to make it seem like a young girl was documenting her every day life in a diary.Of course, being a kid, I was under the impression that the books were actually written by a girl my age and I was amazed at how smart
As I grew up, I was spending sleepless nights reading books. My face was well known in the local libraries. Eventually, local libraries were not enough and I became youngest reader who attended City Science library at the age of 9. I was reading away everything I can put my hands on in the library reading room. Till this day, I keep large library of books in the house which I read daily with my daughter.
avid reader from the time I was five years old. It was my way of escape I guess. One day I was
Every time people are invited over for dinner at my house, the conversation turns to my artwork, specifically the small paper figures that I make. My mom makes me run up to my room to retrieve them. I fill my hands with a collection of replicas of characters from various television shows, movies, and video games, made from only paper, wire and glue. When I return to the table, the room fills with praise. The main figure of interest is always my five inch tall model of Hiccup, the protagonist of the film How to Train Your Dragon 2.
In early years, my mother exhaustingly tried to jumpstart my passion for reading with every Dr.Seuss and Disney book available once my attention span surpassed five minutes. In older years, literary attempts were made with Jeff Kinney, Roald Dahl and J.K.
I used to have to take these tests about all the books I would read in school and I would always ace them all. I knew that reading was something I liked because I was always very intrigued by it. Also in middle school I found my true writing voice. I remember taking a creative writing class in six grade and I was always the student who wrote more than what was expected for my writing assignments. I would write stories about things such as my friends and the experiences that I had in school. Sometimes I would even write my own plays and in my plays the characters would be people in family and people from school. I would always try to make the plot super interesting in my plays. One time I wrote a play about my brothers and me traveling to space and finding aliens. Overall, I really fell in love with literacy throughout my middle school years because I was able to read books more at an advance level and I also was able to write more intense stories. Literacy has been a positive influence in my life all throughout my school
When I was a little girl, I loved to draw. I spent my days going on adventures with my dolls and then doodling the scenarios down on paper. Drawing was amusing and it brought me true pleasure and up to age eleven, I was determined to become an artist when I grew up. One day, while I was sprawled out on the floor doodling, I mentioned my ambition to my mother. There was a moment of silence, and I stoppe...
In my past time, I read, practice piano, and practice ballet. I’ve been participating in piano and ballet for seven years now and I still think I’m just adequate at them. My mom forced me to start reading at a young age this caused my passion and love towards books some of my favorites are Blood Meridian, Gone Girl, and To Kill a Mockingbird.
I remember, even as far back as Kindergarten, being overcome with a need to be perfect. I’m hunched over my desk, coloring vigorously, I feel an insistent tap on my shoulder. Glancing up from my desk, a friend hovers over me, “Elly, we need you to play four square! You’re the only one who has ever gotten Kamryn out.” I want to play but I can’t. I have to finish my drawing of planet earth for a class project. This is the third week of recess I’ve spent inside sketching; my classmates finished their illustrations within two days. But mine had to be perfect. The teacher thought it was remarkable–so did my parents.
‘One of the earliest self-expressive and communicative activities children engage in is drawing. The act of drawing is spontaneous and universally enjoyed by children. As a young child proudly presents his/her squiggly lines, irregular shapes, and colour patches, how are we to make sense of them?’ (Author unknown, 2014, Pg.8)
My parents instilled a passion for reading in me even as a toddler; years later, an excellent,