Once there was a boy who couldn't read at all. Moreover, he didn't want to learn to read either. He was already 7 years old and was supposed to start school. Yes, the school accepted him, even though he didn't know letters or numbers. But the boy wasn't upset. So what if it was school. At least now he had more time to play with his friends and with his favourite toys.
On September 1st, many of his friends went to school, so there was no one to play with in the yard. Little children were playing in the sandbox, but playing with small children wasn't interesting to him at all. But at home, toys were waiting for him. He had a huge number of them, so the boy wasn't bored at all.
His parents tried to instil a love of books in their child. They bought many colourful books at the store: the fairy tales "The Bun," "The Turnip," "Little Red Riding Hood," "The Three Bears." They hoped that the colourful pictures would interest their son. But it was all in vain. He was stubborn and refused to read.
Come on, let me read you the fairy tale "The Bun" or the fairy tale "The Turnip."
His mother said one day when the boy was about to go to bed.
Well, any one.
He replied with great reluctance.
Mother began to read the fairy tale, but noticed that her son wasn't listening at all.
Surely you're not interested at all?
Not at all.
The boy answered lazily and turned to the wall, and then fell asleep altogether.
One day the whole family was supposed to go to visit grandmother for the holidays, who lived far away. For this, they needed to take a train. The boy spent a long time packing because he needed to take as many toys as possible with him. Of course, he couldn't pack all his toys, but he stuffed the suitcase with them to the brim.
And so the parents and son arrived at the station.
Look. Here's the board that shows which platform our train will arrive at.
Father said.
Nothing interesting.
The boy answered.
The train arrived at the first platform. The parents showed their tickets to the conductor and went to their seats on the train.
Are these definitely our seats?
The boy asked.
Of course. Look, they're indicated on the ticket.
His father answered.
The boy took the tickets and began to study them, but since he didn't know either letters or numbers, he quickly got bored with this activity. After 2 hours they arrived. Grandmother was waiting for them.
They all got in the car together and drove to the cottage. Outside it was "Indian summer." Despite it being autumn, the air temperature was high, it was very warm and pleasant. In the garden, vegetables and fruits had just ripened.
Why don't you want to learn to read?
Grandmother asked the boy one day.
Why do I need it?
It's very important. Just imagine, you came to a store and wanted to buy ice cream, but you won't be able to read the name.
I'll just point with my finger at what I like.
Don't you want to read books? Look at what interesting fairy tales your parents bought you. Here's "The Bun" and "The Turnip." These are my favourite fairy tales.
No, I'm too lazy.
The boy muttered and ran off to play with his toys.
The parents' holiday came to an end, and the whole family went to the station to go home. There the boy got distracted by a toy vending machine and fell behind his parents. And so he found himself alone in the middle of a huge station and didn't know where his parents were.
But then he remembered that his father had shown him the board where it was written which train he needed. He ran up to the black board, but couldn't understand anything on it at all, although he saw how children with their parents, walking to the platform, carefully looked at the board and tickets and immediately went where they needed to go.
The boy looked around helplessly and couldn't figure out what to do. His confusion only increased, along with fear and confusion about everything that was happening around him. The boy suddenly realized how wrong he had been when he was stubborn and didn't want to learn to read or write. The boy sat down and cried bitterly.
Then a station worker approached him and asked what had happened. Learning that the boy was lost and completely discouraged, he took him to the station manager, who announced over the loudspeaker that the boy was looking for his parents. Very soon, the boy's breathless parents, who had been searching for him all over the station, were standing in the office.
The son rushed to embrace them. He asked for their forgiveness for being so foolish. They got on the train and the whole way the boy began to ask his parents to read him fairy tales and teach him to read. After all, reading is an important life skill that cannot be done without.
