Teach Your Child to Stop and Smell the Roses.

by Agodi Alagbe

We move through life so fast without stopping to take notice of the simple things we can share with our little ones. Sometimes, it takes a child's wisdom to set us back upon the right track.

My sister sent me a poem that her five-year-old daughter had written for a school project asking her to come up with a creative expression of something she wondered about. Driving home from school, my sister asked my niece, "So, what do you wonder about?" Looking out the window at the changing colors of the North Carolina landscape, my niece answered, "I wonder why we have seasons." She went on to tell her Mom that she was going to write a poem. "What do you know about poems?" asked her Mom. "The words have to rhyme," she replied.

Upon arriving home, my niece immediately went to work and produced this: I Wonder Why We Have Seasons by Iruoma Ekpunobi, Age 5

I wonder why leaves change color in fall. I wonder why in winter snow comes down on all. And I wonder why it makes some people sneeze. And some others say "Oh Please!"

Old leaves fall and go New leaves come and grow In winter we see snowflakes And we get to skate on frozen lakes

The End

This simple expression from a young mind has inspired me to be more present when I drive around town with my son. I now often turn off the dvd, mute the radio and encourage him to look out the window and notice nature. Of course, there is a significant difference in landscape between Southern California and Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and although he may not see the vivid contrast of the colors changing in fall and the snow melting into spring, there is still much to be noticed and discussed about the season. I'm reminded of a line from the poem, Leisure, by W. H. Davies: "what is this life if full of care, we have no time to stand and stare". My conversations with my child have not yielded the next Langston Hughes yet, but we have had many treasured and quotable moments.

I highly recommend that every now and again, you turn off the radio, television, dvd, video game, or ipod and enjoy a real conversation with your children. If you discover a hidden talent please write and tell me about it at agodialagbe@lafamily.com.