Editor's Note: Since our summer break started, I've watched my younger son plead with his older brother to play. "Play with me," he'll say, pouty lip and all. Meanwhile, my older son sits with his head in a book, oblivious to the pleading as he is lost in the pages of another world. Jessica at Sassafrass shared that her son is now prioritizing reading over play, too. Then again, reading kind of is play, isn't it? -Jenna
Reading Is the New Playing:
Play is a child's work, my educator mother told me over and over. And time and again, I watched my boy punch the clock. The plastic ticky clock that only displays one-half of each number and plays an aggravating, sugary Sesame Street tune on the hour.
But over the last few months, playing has been demoted. Reading has soared from middle manager to the big boss. Reading is so in charge that no Lego chef guy's plastic baguette or the mostly put-together Millennium Falcon or the low-tech video game that plugs into the TV barely get any projects at all. They just all hang out in the break room, waiting. Watching that broken clock tick until it sings again.
Credit: sahirasphotography.