Before going to sleep, I set my alarm at 7.15 to make sure we will have enough time for all the morning preparations needed for a little boy to go to kindergarten. In fairness I would not really have to set the alarm since I almost every morning wake up before it goes off, wake up seeing my son lying there looking at me waiting for me to open my eyes. And the times when I do not wake up, when he feels he has waited too long, he will make sure to wake me. Up we go, make breakfast, have breakfast, brush our teeth, pack the backpack with a change of clothes, a towel and eating utensils, we get dressed and a little after nine we make our way to the corner where the kindergarten bus will come.
Morning traffic around here is quite unpredictable, and the number of red lights are quite many, so it often happens that we stand waiting a good ten fifteen minutes before the bus finally arrives. Our son started going to kindergarten by bus in April and it took some time for me to get the hang of the pattern of delay, but after a few weeks of waiting while exploring the life in this particular street corner, I decided to use the time in a more meaningful and fun way and started to bring books to read. There is a little sittable concrete fence foundation at the corner and there we sit down and enjoy some reading while waiting for the bus.
Our old picture books that I read when our son was very much still a baby has got a second life as learn-to-read-books. We are trying to read together the few words on each page, and little by little my son finds it easier to recognize the different letters and how they sound. Also there is in Sweden a series of small thin square pocket-sized picture books called Pixi. My mother sent me a big package of dozens and dozens of such books some time back, and everyday I pick a few and put them in my pocket before we leave the house and walk to the bus stop. Every day my son is excited to see what books he can choose for us to read, and rather than feeling long, the time waiting has started to feel too short sometimes. Oh happy mornings.
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What a good idea! Reading Alfons Åberg (and his dad) is always time well invested.
😊