when the grandparents are away, reading rainbow will play
My parents have been out of town for the last week. They’re back now, don’t bother trying to track down their address to steal their priceless… um… baby toys and 13” TV set.
We’ve been stopping by to check on their cat, a weird animal that lives under their bed and NEVER comes out. I don’t think it ate the whole time they were gone. But it’s still alive—or at least it was yesterday, when we took the kids over to play.
And by “play,” I mean “watch one of the gazillion TiVo’d PBS shows on my parents’ television while Dane and I enjoy a rare 22 minutes of uninterrupted quiet.” We did try to interest them in the sandbox first, but no dice. The giant yellow canary proved unavoidable.
As I scrolled through the recorded programs (Sesame Street-Sesame Street-Sesame Street-Sesame Street-Sesame Street-Sesame Street), I discovered a hidden gem waaaaaaay at the end of the list: Reading Rainbow. I didn’t even know our PBS station was broadcasting Reading Rainbow. I knew it existed, I just didn’t know we had access to it; our local station seems to be all about the cartoons these days.
“Ooh, Abigail,” I said, in my best used-car-salesman voice, “Guess what I found!”
“What?” she asked, suspiciously.
“It’s a show Mommy and Daddy used to watch when we were little! We used to love this one! Both of us did!” Which may be sad, but is completely true. We were both reader kids in the 80’s.
“Okay,” she said slowly, “I’ll give it a try.”
I hit play, and there he was: Levar Burton. A few years older than I remembered, and talking about his dead grandmother. Wait, what? “And after she died, we…” he continued. Um.. um… He introduced the book of the day: Badger’s Parting Gifts. About Badger. Who is old, and knows he must die. Uh…
Did I just talk my kid into watching a show about death? Did I just convince her that her father and I loved to watch the show about death all through our childhoods? Is she going to understand that it’s a show about READING, or is the death aspect going to stick? Is there any way out of this now?
I do a quick calculation and determine that, no, there really isn’t; this is the only Reading Rainbow on the TiVo, I built it up too much, and while I would have preferred to start her off with a Reading Rainbow about nature or mechanics or music or anything not quite so weighty, I really don’t have a problem with her watching a twenty minute segment on death.
“I bet she loves it,” Dane whispered when I told him what she was watching.
Sure enough, 22 minutes later: “Mom! Dad! I watched Reading Rainbow! It was so exciting. It was about DEAD PEOPLE!”
She spent the rest of the day asking about the (very few) people she knows who have died. And she spent all of today creating a lovely little book called “The Book About People Who Are Dead.” So far it contains those words and a decorated cover.
I haven’t decided yet if I’m going to ask my mom to record a few more episodes for us.
Read other answers to the Lovely Mrs. Davis’ query: “What television, music, movie, or book from your childhood are you excited about sharing with your own children?”
[technorati tags: children’s media, Sesame Street, Reading Rainbow, Levar Burton, Badger’s Parting Gifts]
We’ve been stopping by to check on their cat, a weird animal that lives under their bed and NEVER comes out. I don’t think it ate the whole time they were gone. But it’s still alive—or at least it was yesterday, when we took the kids over to play.
And by “play,” I mean “watch one of the gazillion TiVo’d PBS shows on my parents’ television while Dane and I enjoy a rare 22 minutes of uninterrupted quiet.” We did try to interest them in the sandbox first, but no dice. The giant yellow canary proved unavoidable.
As I scrolled through the recorded programs (Sesame Street-Sesame Street-Sesame Street-Sesame Street-Sesame Street-Sesame Street), I discovered a hidden gem waaaaaaay at the end of the list: Reading Rainbow. I didn’t even know our PBS station was broadcasting Reading Rainbow. I knew it existed, I just didn’t know we had access to it; our local station seems to be all about the cartoons these days.
“Ooh, Abigail,” I said, in my best used-car-salesman voice, “Guess what I found!”
“What?” she asked, suspiciously.
“It’s a show Mommy and Daddy used to watch when we were little! We used to love this one! Both of us did!” Which may be sad, but is completely true. We were both reader kids in the 80’s.
“Okay,” she said slowly, “I’ll give it a try.”
I hit play, and there he was: Levar Burton. A few years older than I remembered, and talking about his dead grandmother. Wait, what? “And after she died, we…” he continued. Um.. um… He introduced the book of the day: Badger’s Parting Gifts. About Badger. Who is old, and knows he must die. Uh…
Did I just talk my kid into watching a show about death? Did I just convince her that her father and I loved to watch the show about death all through our childhoods? Is she going to understand that it’s a show about READING, or is the death aspect going to stick? Is there any way out of this now?
I do a quick calculation and determine that, no, there really isn’t; this is the only Reading Rainbow on the TiVo, I built it up too much, and while I would have preferred to start her off with a Reading Rainbow about nature or mechanics or music or anything not quite so weighty, I really don’t have a problem with her watching a twenty minute segment on death.
“I bet she loves it,” Dane whispered when I told him what she was watching.
Sure enough, 22 minutes later: “Mom! Dad! I watched Reading Rainbow! It was so exciting. It was about DEAD PEOPLE!”
She spent the rest of the day asking about the (very few) people she knows who have died. And she spent all of today creating a lovely little book called “The Book About People Who Are Dead.” So far it contains those words and a decorated cover.
I haven’t decided yet if I’m going to ask my mom to record a few more episodes for us.
Read other answers to the Lovely Mrs. Davis’ query: “What television, music, movie, or book from your childhood are you excited about sharing with your own children?”
[technorati tags: children’s media, Sesame Street, Reading Rainbow, Levar Burton, Badger’s Parting Gifts]
Labels: family ties, parenting gems, reading
1 Comments:
We love RR. We ahve borrowing episodes from the library. The kids didn't care for the episode you saw... apparently dealth isn't as interesting for my children... but we have really enjoyed them... I love seeing things from my childhood that I don't mind the kids seeing as well. We have also started watching Electric Company from Netflix. What fun..
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