Monday, November 3, 2008

Literary critic in the making

Clone was reading Fancy Nancy Goes to the Museum by Jane O'Connor tonight. I have Clone read to me when it's the simpler books on her level, so she becomes comfortable speaking aloud and so she can develop her intonation and inflection when speaking publicly. We've also been reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory together over the course of the past few weeks when I'm not being a shiftless mother. I figured since I never read it as a kid, then I may as well read it to my clone who was wanting to read it but was jumbling words. So, over the course of the years that I've been reading to her, I've altered my voice to reflect the different characters and changed my tone to reflect the tone of the story. She picked up on that and now she does it. It's kind of funny to hear the exaggerated exclamations of a child as they relay the story as they see it. It's even funnier when that child is my snarky clone who will also throw in her two pennies about what she thinks the author should have used in terms of certain punctuation marks.
Then in the middle of the story, she interrupted herself with "...and I'm not reading like a robot...", as if to do such a thing merits total disdain and being ostracized till the reader can sound human in their oratory. She rolled right back into reading her story, without missing a beat or breath, of Fancy Nancy and Nancy's explanations of what those fancy words at the museum really mean.
I suspect her teachers have pressed the need for not sounding like a robot. And if I were to bet a shoelace or something, I'd venture it's the taller, unmarried one with no kids who has told the students not to sound like a mechanized pseudo-human. Why do I think this? I've met this teacher's father at church functions a few times, and I pick up on vibes from her. I'm going with the genetic possibility here. The shorter, married, fairly new mom who migrated from New York, doesn't seem like the candidate. I've been known to be wrong, but that's beside the point at the moment. I'm not sure if I should lament this or celebrate it: I've created a strong, openly opinionated daughter who isn't ashamed to share her thoughts. But she doesn't like getting in trouble, just causing a little stir. Clone, indeed.

Oh, what have I done?

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