First comes love

The guilt I sometimes feel over the amount of TV my children watch--and the fact that Hamlet is not, as I was, an early reader--was assuaged somewhat today when I read this article (by way of Kassia Kroszer at Booksquare). To wit:

"We are in a muddle about literacy.... I'm thinking that education itself is in part to blame. Ironically, it may be responsible both for the great blossoming of our literature, and at the same time for leaving so many with the impression that literature is not for them, but the preserve of a certain educated elite. As a consequence, much of our society has become separated from its own stories."

What does this have to do with TV-watching? Well, as we drove home today from Borders, Hamlet asked to see one of the books we had bought him. That book was a Scooby-Doo mystery (a zombie story, no less). He looked at it for at least 20 minutes. And he would not have discovered Scooby-Doo had it not been for TV.

We love reading, but we often find ourselves at a loss for time to do so (largely because we're constantly responding to requests to play, when we aren't working, or cleaning, or taking care of baby brother). For himself, Puck has become quite the little book-lover, and not just because the cardboard tastes great. He'll spend significant blocks of time paging through board books, looking at animals especially, making their sounds.

I can't help but wonder if his interest in books is breaking through Hamlet's somewhat rigid idea that books are only for bedtime, if his car ride request is any indication. Meanwhile, Morpurgo's article tells me that I should back off the letter-writing, phonics, and other "education" and instead focus on the stories. My job, in other words, as a mother and a writer. If TV helps me with that? I'm halfway there.