Reading Together, Being Together: How Literature Brought A Mother and Daughter Closer
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By Diana Andreyeva, 10 year-old student at Reeds Ferry School and daughter of Oxana Andreyeva, Connections participant and student at Nashua Adult Learning Center
We came to the United States of America in 2021 of August. At the moment of transition, we did not know a word in English. We started to gain the language later in about 2022. My mom started to find possibilities to learn the language starting with YouTube, followed by Duolingo after not gaining results from the first app. Then some of my mother’s friends suggested to take a peak at the Nashua Adult Learning Center.
On the Zoom lessons with her teacher, Dana Darrow, she started to read books. My mom likes to get new books to her mailbox from the New Hampshire Humanities’ Connections program. Because of this program and her teacher, she gained interest and the motivation to read them.
Holes by Louis Sachar happened to be the one that caught her eye. At that time, I didn’t know about the book. Later on, I started reading Holes in my class at Reeds Ferry School and told my mom about it. She remembered that she was reading it as well. We started to compare the lessons and ideas from the book. She let me borrow her book and I started to help her read it the right way.
After reading chapter by chapter, we started discussing what the similarities and differences were between Zero and Stanley, the main characters in the book. I was telling my point of view while still listening to my mother’s. It helped us build a connection and spend more time in discussion with each other. After reading the book we watched the movie together to gain more knowledge and understanding of the situations between the characters.
We really recommend the book for family reading and school because it helps with communication between adults, kids, and friends.
For a printable version of this article, click here.
To learn more about the Connections program, visit www.nhhumanities.org/Connections.
