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, they accepted him into school, 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 favorite 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 kids 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 instill a love of books in their child. They bought many colorful books at the store: the fairy tales "The Turnip," "Little Red Riding Hood," and "The Three Bears." They hoped that the colorful 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 Turnip" or "Little Red Riding Hood."
His mother said one day when the boy was about to go to bed.
Well, any one.
He replied with great reluctance.
Mom began to read the fairy tale, but noticed that her son wasn't listening at all.
Aren't you interested at all?
Not at all.
The boy answered lazily and turned toward the wall, and then fell asleep altogether.
One day the whole family was supposed to go visit grandmother for vacation, and she lived far away. For this, they needed to take a train. The boy took 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 full of them.
And so the parents and their son arrived at the train station.
Look. There's the board that shows which platform our train will arrive at.
Said father.
Nothing interesting.
Answered the boy.
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 really our seats?
Asked the boy.
Of course. Look, they're written on the ticket.
Answered his father.
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 dacha. 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 to?
It's very important. Imagine you went to a store and wanted to buy ice cream, but you couldn't read the name.
I'll just point with my finger at what I like.
Don't you want to read books? Look at the interesting fairy tales your parents bought you. Here's "The Turnip" and "Little Red Riding Hood." These are my favorite fairy tales.
No, I'm too lazy.
Grumbled the boy and ran off to play with his toys.
The parents' vacation came to an end, and the whole family went to the train 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 train station and had no idea where his parents were.
But then he remembered that his father had shown him the board where it said 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 in confusion and couldn't figure out what to do. His confusion only grew, along with fear and confusion about everything happening around him. The boy suddenly realized how wrong he had been when he stubbornly refused to learn to read or write. The boy sat down and cried bitterly.
Then a station worker approached him and asked what was wrong. Learning that the boy was lost and very upset, 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 begged his parents to read him fairy tales and teach him to read. After all, reading is an important life skill that you simply cannot do without.
