Read On

When I received the volunteer signup sheet for Kidlet's school, I looked carefully at all the categories. When I saw "Office", I found myself thinking about all the hours I spent babysitting and working at A&W to save up to go to college. I thought of my Clerk Typist Certificate that I received in addition to my High School Diploma, the hectic ten months at Grant Macewan College taking a variety of Administrative Secretarial courses and five years later upgrading my computer skills. I fast forwarded through fifteen years of working in the Office/Clerical field. It was with no doubts in my mind I deliberately left blank "Office".

Today there is no doubt in my mind I made the right decision for me. I am a voracious reader. Big Lug swears I am the only woman who has everything from romantic fiction to anecdotal style cookbooks, from books with titles like "Hard Labor" and "Birthing From Within" to "Elvis Is Dead and I Don't Feel So Good Myself" and "I Should Have Seen It Coming When The Rabbit Died". When I arrived at Kidlet's classroom, his teacher asked me if I could help the kids with their Individual Reading.

It was fun teaching the kids in the high range the importance of attention to detail. The ones in the middle range were enjoyable because they tended to be very excited and eager to show me how well they could read. It was the low range kids that made me realize I was right where I was meant to be and made the morning a precious experience. It was thrilling to see a pair of blue eyes light up with joy as they realized the difference between "the" and "there". One of the boys started out tentative and as I encouraged him, by the end he was saying the words with confidence. I made a girl grin with delight when I asked her if she liked ice cream and pointed out to her a book about ice cream. Yes, I had already had a chance to review that book two weeks ago. It was thanks to caring teachers and kind-hearted volunteers, as well as dedicated parents who never gave up on me that I became the avid reader I am today. Like his mother before him, Kidlet is starting at the bottom and working his way to the top.

Proverbs 23:12 Apply your heart to instruction, and your ears to the words of knowledge.