03:10 - 10.10.07
(S)wordplay
My granddaughter's word for today was "eureka", spoken very clearly at that. She rolled it round her mouth lovingly, then savoured every syllable of the word as it slipped across her lips several times. Smacking those same lips appreciately after the fact. She picked "Eureka" up from one of the more enjoyable children's shows aimed at her age group = 1 to 2 year olds, that is. I was impressed even as a mom of six sons myself. I don't recall hearing that word that early with any of her uncles. That said, their teachers collectively were always blown away by my sons' vocabularies, but that was simply a function of having read to them from the minute they emerged from the womb. Eschewing most of the baby books - Seuss and Munsch being the exceptions - and focussing more on the Tolkien/Cooper series and that ilk of writing. The idea that children can only absorb the simple is what turns so many of them off reading even before they reach school age. Although a child may not understand each single word, collectively, if a book is well written, then the meaning of the whole engages and stimulates their imagination. A lot of the childrens' books I've seen would bore anyone silly - especially small active minds that thirst for "input" from the movie "Short Circuit" which my sons' watched ad nauseum and forever. Building on those thoughts one of the features I've really grown to enjoy on Facebook is the option in the "personal section", to click on any word or group of words - they have to be separated by commas - listed, such as a book or song title that then collates and sets up a list of every other person in your network(s) who has also listed that title. Some very fascinating revelations have come of that. One's expectations of what would be "popular" and otherwise are often completely wrong. My last word tonight is about the wordfest convention playing out in our city right now. The are wordsmiths and masters but in the end the reader has the last word. Right?
Anyway time to go get some sleep so I can continue engaging in wordplay with my grandaughter in a few hours. Good night dear diary.
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