Reading With Dao

Dao has a great memory and remembers most of the books we have read; therefore, I liked to do a bit of interactive reading with him. For example, when we read Dr. Seuss’s ABC, I said “A” and he said “alligator.” I said “B” and he said “bumblebee.” I said “C” and he said “camel.” When we got to “I,” however, he said “gai,” which means scratch in Vietnamese, but the actual word is “itchy.”

Another book that he liked to read is P.D. Eastman’s “Are You My Mother?” He started out with, “A mother bird sat on her egg. The egg jumped.” The I read the next few lines with him filling in the sentences. When we got to page eight, he got up, jumped and yelled out, “the egg jumped. It jumped, and jumped, and jumped.” Then I said, “Out came…” He screamed, “the baby bird!” He also said, “I am too loud.” I replied, “Yes, you are.”

One of our favorite books is Dr. Seuss’s Oh, the Places You’ll Go. Here’s how we read it:

Me: Congratu…
Dao: lations!
Me: Today is…
Dao: your day.
Me: You’re off to…
Dao: Great Places!
Me: You’re off and…
Dao: away.
Me: You have brains in your…
Dao: head.
Me: You have feet in your…
Dao: shoes.
Me You can steer yourself any direction you…
Dao: choose.
Me: You’re on your…
Dao: own.
Me: And you know what you…
Dao: know.
Me: And YOU are the guy who’ll decide…
Dao: where to go.