More Curious George

Yesterday we looked at Curious George some more, and the Lark was doing lots more thinking and relating. He looked at the first picture of George and said, "He's eating a banana." A few pages later he saw George trapped in a bag and asked, "What is it?" I told him George was trapped in a bag. He didn't know what to make of that, but I was trying to say as little as possible. Then we got to a picture of the ship that George would take back to the City. It was off in the distance and looked like a small boat. The Lark pointed to the little "house" part and said, "There's a bed in there." He was relating this picture to what he knew about his grandfather's boat, which has a little compartment for sleeping. Luckily, on the next page there was a picure of George and the Man in their cabin, which had beds in it. The Lark was clearly pleased that his assumption turned out to be true. He pointed out the blankets and the pillows. He was curious about the curtains on the two berths. "These beds have curtians," he declared. He wanted to know about the little window and the ocean outside. He asked about lots of things. Then he pointed to George and said, "It's like Tony." And he pointed to the Man and said, "It's like [the Lark]." He was comparing this picture to a photo we have of the Lark and his brother in the tiny sleeping compartment on their grandfather's boat. So the Lark wasn't thinking about the story, or the actual relationship of the characters in the story, but he was trying to relate what he saw to his own life, which is exactly what typical children do with story books. It's the first step And the really exciting part was just how hard the Lark was working to make sense of the pictures--he was motivated, and voluntarily doing the work of thinking and making sense.