This story goes back… WAY back to when my daughter, Elizabeth, was five years old.
Elizabeth was getting dressed for her day in kindergarten. She asked me, “Mom, do you think I should tuck my shirt in my pants or wear it out?”
I looked at her and replied, “you can wear it either way. Which way would you like it today?”
“Hmmm,” she mused. “I think I’ll wear it tucked in because then everyone can admire my sparkly belt.”
I smiled at her sweetness while marveling at her use of a great vocabulary word- “admire.” I said, “Good choice, Elizabeth. Everyone will certainly admire your sparkly belt.”
She tucked her shirt in and asked me, “Mom?”
“Yes?”
“What does admire mean anyway?”
So very funny! We talked about the meaning of the word, and she went on her way. I was impressed that she had picked up the word somewhere and had used it correctly in context.
Weeks later, we were reading Jan Brett’s The Mitten, and we came upon the sentence “He stopped for a moment to admire his winter coat.”
Ah ha! I realized that this is where she had learned the word admire- in a book read over and over.
You know that teachers always say that the number one thing you can do as a parent to improve your child’s school success is to read, read, read to your child.
So very true! Your child will have countless language-filled moments like Elizabeth’s innocent comment that “everyone will admire my sparkly belt.”