Atticus is still an exciting and imaginative little boy. His thoughts and descriptions are incredibly creative and he loves to tell me stories. Atticus is a very personable kid, always coming up with things to talk about, never leaving a silent or dull moment. He always has a good time at school, coming to Reading Buddies with some sort of story from that day. Our session two weeks ago on March 20th, Atticus was beginning to illustrate for his story. The pictures he drew were incredibly intricate and creative. These pictures went along with a very creative story that I am very proud of Atticus for coming up with. If there wasn't a limit on how long the stories could be, Atticus would have made his story 20 pages long. I think reading so many books gives Atticus these awesome ideas for his story which makes me happy to know I am developing him as a writer and reader in some way.
Through helping write Atticus's story and reading to Atticus, I've paid more attention to the dialect that Linguistics 1000 made me realize that I have. I try and be much more articulate when talking to Atticus, so he doesn't pick up on any incorrect grammar or incorrect phonetics. Without being in Linguistics 1000, I would not have realized I even had a dialect or that I should be more aware of my lexical, grammar, and phonetic linguistic features when speaking to others, especially children.
This Reading Buddy experience has taught me a lot about how the simple act of reading a child books and stories will allow their imagination and creativity to expand a massive amount. Language in U.S. society is the foundation of children's imagination. When reading a book, a child is not just taking the story as it is, they are developing their own story as well, getting ideas and images from that book which is what makes reading so special. This is why it is extremely important for children to be reading at a young age and to embrace all the books that they can!
