The Weekly Geeks meme this week gives a choice between two of my favorite topics in celebration of International Children’s Book Day (April 2nd) and National Poetry Month: “Reading to children” and “Poetry.” Option A is called “Be a Kid” and Option B is called “Be a Poet.” I must combine the two to share a favorite memory of our 2-year-old daughter (now age 30) reciting poetry to her beloved Gramps.

Weekly Geeks Option A: Be a kid! Write up a post about reading together with your child(ren)

Looking back at those years of raising our children (those years that went by with lightning speed!), B and I have recognized that if we did nothing else right in raising those two wonderful human beings, we got it absolutely right with the books and the poetry, which became part of their souls!

The impact of reading, and especially of poetry, on the language development of very young children is enormous. And that’s in addition to the joy of sharing the discoveries a small child makes of the world of books and poems. Our daughter recited poetry as part of her first words and sentences. The syntax was there, if not the ability to enunciate. Her favorite book at that age was a sweet little board book of nursery rhymes, Ladybug, Ladybug and Other Nursery Rhymes, by Eloise Wilkin.

So turn up your sound and listen to a short, scratchy recording of our daughter reciting the nursery rhyme, “One Misty Moisty Morning“, to her gramps on his 61st birthday. In this recording, she is exactly the same age as our Grandboy is now, (2 years old). Right now I am almost the same age as my Dad at the time of this recording. A poignant reminder of the passing of seasons. and as I said before, of lightning speed!

And because only the parents (and grandparents) could really understand the words spoken by that beautiful little girl, here’s the text of the poem: