Ben Affleck was recently photographed with his cutie patootie daughter, Seraphina, and it's not her outfit nor her dimples that are drawing attention. It's her reading material! Ben was carrying Seraphina out of a breakfast joint in L.A. and in his hands he held a book. But not a SpongeBob or Dora or even Dr. Seuss book. Nope, it was a Dickens book! Yeeesssss, you know, Dickens, right? I hope. Charles Dickens, my friends. Okay, it was a children's illustrated version of a bunch of Dickens classics. But, get this, the book is recommended reading material for children ages 9 to 12. And Seraphina is 3! Woah. Could Seraphina be a genius?
Okay, so maybe Seraphina wasn't exactly reading the book -- more like poppa was reading it to her. But she must be interested in it, because what dad brings a book to breakfast that the kid hates? That'd be torture! You know how it is with kids and books -- they get addicted to one and want to hear it over and over. And over.
My friends, I have some news for you. Seraphina's book is at a higher reading comprehension level than Fifty Shades of Grey. For reals.
Family lore has it that I was talking at 9 months old and reading shortly thereafter. Probably an exaggeration. Just a lil. But I was placed in a "gifted" reading course in second grade. While other kids were reading whatever it was they were reading, I was given adult magazines. Not those kind, you sickos. Reader's Digest and Newsweek. No doubt much of this ease with reading was a proclivity I was born with, but I also remember getting read to a lot by the adults in my family. In fact, lots of times, my mother just read me whatever she was reading. That meant I heard a lot of mystery and horror paperbacks. Not exactly Dickens, but whatevs.
Could Ben be pushing his daughter, reading books to her beyond her comprehension level? Well, so what. Maybe he wants his kid to excel in school. And if she's not pitching a fit about it or falling asleep over her eggs while listening to it, then he's setting her up to succeed in life. Good on ya, Ben!
What do your kids read?
Image via PacificCoastNews
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Comments 10
My dad read stuff like that to me. Dickens is wonderful and reading something they need a little help understanding with your child helps them learn how to ask questions and form opinions when reading. He's a good dad.
Kid versions of classic books are easy to come by (I have found many in the $1 section of Target) and Ben is probably reading one of those to her.
Just because he's reading her a novel doesn't mean she's a genius. And he might not even be reading to her...he might be reading it himself. My family is infamous for reading adult-level books to children, as well as picture books. Why? Because literature of all kinds expands the mind, and just because they are children doesn't mean you always have to read Dr. Suess. My parents interspersed the usual picture books with classic books--the Little House Books, Little Women, Anne of Green Gables, etc. We always read a chapter of a novel before bed. It was a lot easier to settle us kids down with a book without rhymes and pictures. And given that I learned to read as a toddler, I outgrew picture books before kindergarten and thirsted for something more. Without novels, I would have lost my love of reading and that would be extremely sad. I love to read and loved that my family took the time to nuture that love with books, even if they were made for an older audience. Did I understand everything in the novels given to me? No. Just because I could read it didn't mean I could comprehend it. But I could follow the storyline and enjoyed it nonetheless. And re-reading was a blast when I could finally understand it all.
With babies, it's just as easy to read a novel as it is to read a picture book. The first books I read to the kids were classic novels because that's what I was reading at the time, and the fact that I was reading was more important than what I was reading. And at a week old, they didn't have the eyesight, the neck muscles, or the attention span to really appreciate picture books and I'd rather read a novel than a picture book anyway.
I really don't pay much attention to the age span for books, my daughter reads everything from her "baby" books, to Little Women, what'important is that they read, read, read.