report about reading<\/a>. I wasn’t surprised to find that literacy rates
\nare higher among children whose parents read to them at home. What surprised me
\nwas that literacy raters are higher still among children who see their parents
\nreading. In fact, watching their parents read had a greater impact on kids than
\nhaving their parents read to them. <\/p>\nThe kids are watching.<\/p>\n
Now that I’m pregnant, I’m very aware of how my behavior
\nimpacts this little life within me. There’s a list of foods, beverages, and
\nactivities to avoid. I think I felt the baby move for the first time the other
\nday, on the heels of drinking a Diet Coke. It was thrilling, of course, but
\nalso a stark reminder that whatever substance goes into me, goes into that
\nlittle one too. <\/p>\n
My patterns of consumption don’t always seem as direct with
\nPenny and William, but if I’m honest, I know that my behavior makes a big
\nimpact in who they are becoming. Their whole lives consist of imitating the people
\naround them. Before meals, I’ve found Penny crossing herself and saying,
\n“Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,” because our babysitter begins her meals that
\nway. Penny’s also taken to adding the word “super” (I’m super-excited or I’m
\nsuper-fast) to adjectives. Hmm. Wonder where she learned that one. One of
\nWilliam’s favorite activities is cleaning. He would rather “help” me sweep the
\nfloor than play by himself with blocks. Those are positive examples, and I hope
\nwe give them plenty of those. But the truth is that they see the negative too. <\/p>\n
I hear my own voice when Penny yells, “No William! You may
\nNOT turn on the light!” And I’m sure there are more insidious examples,
\npatterns of behavior that I hardly notice but that make a difference on who my
\nchildren are and how they learn to behave as they grow older.<\/p>\n
I get annoyed by this pregnancy sometimes, by the
\nrestrictions, by the sense that my body is being given away to another. And yet
\nwhat a privilege it is to carry this life into the world. What a privilege it is
\nto teach Penny and William how to live. And what a gift–even as I resist it–to be
\nwatched by my children. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A few years ago, the National Endowment for the Arts released a report about reading. I wasn’t surprised to find that literacy rates are higher among children whose parents read to them at home. What surprised me was that literacy raters are higher still among children who see their parents reading. In fact, watching their…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-family"],"yoast_head":"\n
The Children are Watching - Thin Places<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/07\/the-children-are-watching.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Children are Watching - Thin Places\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A few years ago, the National Endowment for the Arts released a report about reading. I wasn’t surprised to find that literacy rates are higher among children whose parents read to them at home. What surprised me was that literacy raters are higher still among children who see their parents reading. 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I wasn’t surprised to find that literacy rates are higher among children whose parents read to them at home. What surprised me was that literacy raters are higher still among children who see their parents reading. In fact, watching their…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/07\/the-children-are-watching.html","og_site_name":"Thin Places","article_published_time":"2010-07-26T08:54:29+00:00","author":"amyjuliabecker","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/07\/the-children-are-watching.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/07\/the-children-are-watching.html","name":"The Children are Watching - Thin Places","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-07-26T08:54:29+00:00","dateModified":"2010-07-26T08:54:29+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#\/schema\/person\/4dde10eee38770361dc9b46a9413776b"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/07\/the-children-are-watching.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/07\/the-children-are-watching.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/07\/the-children-are-watching.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Children are Watching"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/","name":"Thin Places","description":"Amy Julia Becker on Faith, Family, and Disability","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#\/schema\/person\/4dde10eee38770361dc9b46a9413776b","name":"amyjuliabecker","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/222\/2222023dcae76abe6e896a3cf80e9836x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/222\/2222023dcae76abe6e896a3cf80e9836x96.jpg","caption":"amyjuliabecker"},"description":"Amy Julia Becker writes about theology, disability, family, and culture. Two major life experiences have shaped her writing and her faith\u00e2\u20ac\u201dcaring for her mother-in-law as she battled cancer and welcoming her daughter Penny into the world after she was diagnosed at birth with Down syndrome. Both experiences expanded and enriched her understanding of what it means to be human and to receive each and every person as a gift.\u00c2\u00a0 A graduate of Princeton University and Princeton Theological Seminary, she is the author of Penelope Ayers: A Memoir, and the forthcoming A Good and Perfect Gift (Bethany House). Her essays have appeared in First Things, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Christian Century, ChristianityToday.com, and Bloom, among other online venues.","sameAs":["http:\/\/amyjuliabecker.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/author\/amyjuliabecker"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}