Note: This story happened weeks ago, so for the sake of my sanity, please just enjoy the story, but do NOT remind Babs that said story exists. Otherwise, I will have to revisit the entire thing.
Are you familiar with Little Bunny Foo-Foo? Who goes hopping through the forest? Scooping up the field mice and bopping them on the head? Well, the good fairy comes by and tells him to stop or else. After three chances Mr. Bunny has not improved his behavior, so the fairy turns him into a goon.
At first we didn't listen to the song because it scared Kiddo, what with the goon talk and all. But that drew Babs' attention to this scary story, and so we needed to listen to it. So when we were in the car without Kiddo (which happens a lot now that we're off to preschool every other day, while Kiddo's in school), we listened to the rhyme/song/ditty. Then we listened to it again. And again. And again.
After Babs had heard the story enough times to really know it, then she had to understand it. What's a goon? Why did the good fairy tell Little Bunny Foo-Foo to stop? What was he doing again? Why was that wrong?
Babs always wants the back story. She wonders about what motivates the characters. She wonders what happens next. She is never content to just hear a story, she has to know a story, to feel the story. Part of this process includes reading the story backwards, page by page. I find her probing question complicated, as I've always just accepted stories at face value. Babs is teaching me to consider more.
Her best question: What if the fairy gave him five chances?
***
I've started reading her chapter books. It turns out that she is more than ready. We recently finished Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, then watched the movie (which is legendary in my husband's family, given a certain Aunt's love of the movie.) Babs had a hard time reconciling the differences. For example, in the book Charlie sees the other children leaving the factory,
"fixed" from their naughtiness. Babs was disappointed not to see that in
the movie. (She thinks there is another movie, and she is anxious to
see that part.) I found the book to be so much better than the movie. There is a lot more Oompa-Loompa singing in the book, they have a lot more to say.
We've started a new book, and on the page that Babs was carefully pouring over (she can't read yet, but she knows all those letters become something), she noticed two words in italics. "It looks like there's some singing in here," she wisely pointed out.
