Fox in Socks

Beware, Kids are get more than you may think!

Have you had the pleasure of reading “Fox in Socks” by Dr. Seuss?

A wonderfully fun book that has to be read out loud, turning your tongue inside out and upside down.

Mr. Fox is playing a game with Mr. Knox.

Mr. Fox can easily recite tongue twisters, Mr. Knox cannot.

Pulling this book out has been a memorable experience to me for more than one reason.

Fun: It’s fun to read and Stella enjoys it, smiling and giggling throughout.

Association: Stella likes to assign characters within the books she reads. Pointing out different figures in a book she will tell you who each “person” is; Here is opa, here’s mommy, this is Carsten, leah, Franzi, Daddy and so on. For the most part, I thought this exercise was arbitrary act of randomly assigning names that she new to figures on a page. There was no connection between the real people she knew and the figures on the page.

Reading “Fox in Socks” has changed my mind about this.

First of all, the last set of rhymes where the tweedle beetles are doing battle in a ….

At first Stella said she was one of the beetles however, once they were in a “tweedle beetle bottle puddle paddle battle muddle.” It was game off.

She didn’t want to be in a bottle.

Second. Stella assigned daddy to the Mr. Fox character. He is the one that is having fun while reciting these silly rhymes. She then assigned Mommy to Mr. Knox, the one who can recite the rhymes at all. The other day when Daddy wasn’t around, Mommy was asked to read the book. She struggled with some of the rhymes.

Stella stopped her in the middle of the book and told her “it is okay Mommy, we can read another book and Daddy can read this one to me when he comes home.”

A level of comprehension, association and connection that I did not expect form a 2.5 year old. She recognized that Mr. Fox is the one that can easily say the rhymes; she assigned a character profile to this figure in the book and finally associated it with a real life person who fits this profile.

Recitation: Finally, Stella has only heard this book 2.5 times; twice from Daddy and the half time from Mommy. Despite this limited exposure, out of nowhere, later in the evening, she begins to recite the “Bin and Ben Band” and the “Blue Goo” rhymes.

Wow!

Have some fun, go read this with your kids today!