Pup Is Up

My mom raised four academically successful kids. That’s not to say we don’t have other issues and obstacles (because we do--just ask anyone who’s ever met us), but school has always come easily. Between us, there are three teachers, two authors, one attorney, undergrad degrees, grad degrees, professional degrees and enough post-secondary education to make an entire legal drinking-age person. There are any number of factors contributing to this--good genes, clean air, enough healthy food, subsidized public education--but I think the most significant element to our intellectual development was having a mother who is particularly skilled at teaching children how to learn. Once you’ve got that, natural curiosity has a place to go and a framework for what to do when it gets there. Not only did my mom teach us to love knowledge, she tutored a generation of other kids who needed help with basic reading skills. Most weekdays after she came home from working in a Special Ed classroom, she would have several children around the dining room table working on phonics and blended sounds. Kind of like piano lessons with more flashcards and less noise. It often seemed repetitive and tedious, but I have to give her credit because all of those kids improved or achieved literacy from those afternoons working with my mom. The book I remember hearing more often than any other was Dr. Seuss’ Hop On Pop. It was the original Hooked on Phonics. It’s also how I learned to spell “Constantinople” and “Timbuktu.”

http://www.amazon.com/Hop-Pop-Beginner-Books-R/dp/039480029X

http://www.atozteacherstuff.com/Themes/Dr__Seuss/