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Since I've been at home recovering, and Dave's grandmother is visiting from out of town, we've been babysitting Dave's 10 year old god daughter, April.
Ever since I've met her she's been one of those slow to warm up kids, with a shy little hello. But the one thing I know about kids around that age, is that you can usually open them up by asking them two or three questions - 'What do you like to watch on TV?' or 'So what are you into?' As soon as they answer that, ask them to tell you about it, and you'll have at least 10 minutes of convo time. Kids love to talk about the things they're passionate about.
So April came over the other day, and she was carrying a book with her. A yellow and blue hardcover book that to me, was all too familiar. A Nancy Drew book! I didn't think that kids nowadays (I sound like an old fart) still read those books. So not only did I have 10 minutes of convo with April, but a whole afternoon's worth, discussing all the adventures of Nancy Drew and the books that we both had read in common. Turns out that April has the same passion for reading that I did as a child, and she was amazed that I had read the same books as her, as much as I was surprised that kids are still reading about Superfudge and Ramona Quimby.
She had never seen 'The Neverending Story' which was one of my favorite movies as a kid, so I popped in the DVD and she loved it. She, in turn, introduced me to the Disney Channel online site which had tons of games to play that we quickly became addicted to. (sidenote: There is nothing that makes you cooler than a wireless DSL connection and playing with a kid that has had to suffer with a dial up connection. You become a god!)
It was a nice feeling to hang out with April, who for her age is really smart and pretty fun to talk to. There are so many news reports nowadays about kids failing in school, or kids not caring about things that are going on in the world or not caring about school, etc, so it was nice to see that not all kids fit into that stereotype, that there's a lot of great kids out there that are going to do well, that are just like the kids that we were.
Or maybe I'm just rambling because I'm on new medication.
:-P
Posted by Yano at July 29, 2004 11:55 AMKids are the greatest. I learn something new everytime I'm with my grandkids. It seems like all we hear are negative things about kids on the news but there are so many good kids, you just never hear about them.
Posted by: Sue on July 29, 2004 12:30 PMneverending story rocks my socks. and OMG i saw that picture of your eye at the photo-journal...your eye in the center looks silverish-black! that's freakin' cool.
Posted by: marie on July 29, 2004 01:54 PMI wonder if finally showing DSL to my dial-up dad will have the same effect. :D
Glad to see you got to be a cool buddy to a fellow book-reader. You old fart...
Posted by: Mike on July 29, 2004 04:47 PMI LOVED Nancy Drew. I still have all my books from when I was a kid.
Posted by: Melinda on July 29, 2004 04:50 PMI remember my first Nancy Drew book: The Mystery in the Old Clock "Time is money, look in the clock." How great that you could share that with April. A love of reading is one of Life's great joys. But a warm friend to share it is even better. You're gonna make a GREAT Mom!
Susan
Posted by: SusanG on July 29, 2004 05:41 PMmost kids are great! and it's wonderful that you try to make that connection-some adults never try and miss out....I also think you'll be a wonderful mom :)
and I also read Nancy Drew!! and so did my daughter :)
