What Do You Love? is a children's book that has a small dog answering his mother's repeated question, "What do you love?" His answers are just what a mother would like to hear. He loves "Mud pies and Mommy's eyes," "Jumping puddles and Mommy's cuddles," "Read-alouds and sunset clouds," "Silly tunes and full moons," "Long walks and quiet talks," etc.
After reading this story to my sons at bedtime, I asked them what they loved. Eli, my compliant, eager-to-please, sensitive son replied, "I love you and Mommy. I love swimming and Esther (our daughter). I love watching the flowers grow and the sea monkeys too. I love Jesus." And then there's Abe, our wild, zany, marching-to-the-beat-of-his-own-drummer son. Abe says, "I love My Lucky Day (the next book we were going to read). I love Superman and Batman and Spiderman and Star Wars and Star Wars Legos and I love chocolate and cookies and race cars and legos and I love Star Wars Legos and I love Jesus too. He says this so fast I find myself wondering how he could string such an impressive list together and spit it out in one breath.
As I was about to prompt him to dig a little deeper, I realized he didn't need to. These were all things that he loved. A good reminder for me that each of my students brings something special to the class; each brings a "valid" answer to such an open-ended question. Sometimes it's difficult not to value and praise the answer I'm expecting more than others.
Nothing earth-shattering, but a valuable reminder.
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