Another year is passing. Time to take stock of how I fare as a father. I am not one who is good at remembering things. I try to remember my childhood experiences, I stare through my mind's eyes into blank spaces. Even for something as recent as the past year, they all fleet past like a blurr. All I see in the memory's landscape are the images of moments spent with my children - bantering, chatting over dinner, traveling in the car - normal regular things, but mostly happy times dotted with laughters, for which I am thankful.
As I think about resolutions as a father for the coming year, I think about one specific area that I have not looked into carefully enough over the past years: reading. Well, for my youngest 4-year-old, he has not started reading on his own yet. So for him, the resolution is straightforward - to help him learn to read in the coming year. For all his older siblings, they all picked up reading by reading the same book many times. They progress from listening to me read, then fill in every last word of every page, to filling in every last word of every sentence, to finally reading the whole book to me. once they can read a book, they tended to progress reading other books quite quickly. I might try the same process with him.
For the number 3, she is 10 and reading - too much. We call her a bookasaurus: she devours any book that comes her way [at one point, she was out of books to read and picked up a Christian philosophy book that I was reading, but didn't get very far!]. for her, I need to direct her reading so that she makes good use of her reading time - so that she doesn't read trash. There are two types of books we want her to read more: Chinese books and good classical literature. For the former, we haven't been able to make much headway until recently: she took interest in the justice pao series on DVD; it makes the transition to reading about justice pao (in Chinese) easier. She surprised us by reading a library book on justice pao without much coaxing. For the latter, we need to pile her library takeaways with more meaty reads.
For the number 2, she was a book lover when she was younger. Sadly, with the pressure of schoolwork, she has been reading less for the last few years. It doesn't help that next year is her O-Level year. For her, realistically, she may have to read on things she hopes to develop interest in further.
For the eldest, it is even more challenging - as he sits for his A-Level next year. Still, I think he needs to set aside time to read. I think in particular about the following year when he would be enrolled for national service. That will be a place where his morals would be be tested. I should encourage him to read about things that will strengthen his foundational values.
For all of them, I need to work harder to get them to read the bible more consistently. Being a Christian family, we are ultimately guided not merely by 'what works', but by how God designs us to function. Without which, we will all lose our sense of purpose and direction. It must start with the father setting the example ...
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