What are the letters?

This note was written specially for a radio show in Mexico City hosted by my very good friend Antonio Rodriguez. He reads tales for children and have so much fun teaching interesting things to adults.

So, this little idea doesn't have any other message than help to children to enjoy letters.

What are the letters? 

The letters are the signs which we see the sounds. The language is the expression of the words we say, for example mom, dad or carrot, but they are sounds, we cannot see them, and they just go through our ears.

One day, humans decided  they wanted  to see those sounds because the words are kind of butterflies that fly free by a flowery garden, flying freely and in a moment, disappear!, so someone suggested the idea of hunting them to save them, of course without mistreat them, so it’s possible to  share them with others!.

So each letter represents a sound, there is no a letter with two sounds, each one has a name so we can’t confuse them, if you look carefully, you will see that each one has a specific shape, some of them have long hair, others have balls to play when you give them the opportunity, while others, have smiles of colors, they are fun because they like so much share ideas.

What is reading?

Reading is the way we produce the sound of the letters. Equal when a pianist or violinist extracted music from a sheet music, letters, when you read tell you their secrets, through the sound that someone wrote one day. It’s similar  to get sound from the ideas, but we need to be careful and respect the cadence and rhythm of those ideas, because if we read very fast and without noticing, we can read in wrong way, so we  must learn to feel every letter, every word, every idea, because nobody likes a song singed in a wrong way, right?

When we read, someone share images, smells, through words and allows us to sit down near to tell us what that person lived, dreamed or ate. When we read, it's like talking to someone who only asks us to pay  attention.

And when we write, how do letters work?

Reading and writing go hand by hand, when we write, we draw our ideas, and we photograph them to those who want to see them and enjoy them. The word is like a sweet caress that gently kisses the wings of a nightingale, but when we write them angry, they hurt, they can be deadly. People can be very sad reading ideas that people write when they are angry. That is why we must be careful with words. When we write, we sculpt on paper our ideas, goals, fears, our good and bad days, and make them ever lasting. It's like taking pictures of our lives.

The letters when they are separate do not say a lot, for example if you put an A, just say A... but if we put question symbol sounds A? And if we write an exclamation sounds A!... but when we invite to the party with other letters for example the “m", together sound like "ma" and if we repeat that sound cute because they are able to say "mama".

That´s why letters do not like to be alone, they like to have many friends, and sometimes also invite punctuation marks, because when they have more friends  together, more things are able to say!.

Why some children have problems to read?

Some children do not recognize the differences between each letters, confuse them, in part because we they teach them very fast, they see the letters as if they were in a car at high speed and try to count all the  pink flowers that see around, it's very difficult!. But sometimes if you take the time and walk, it’s very easy to see all the pink flowers with great care. Some letters are like the A look like an airplane, ready to fly!. Others, like for example the "u" is like a rope that invites you to jump.

My favorite letter is G, because it seems a threaded kitten. When each child learns to recognize that each letter has a name and a personality, as peers in a classroom, it is easier to begin to read and write, and the letters become friends.

What do we learn when we read? Everybody get mad at me because I read wrong!

The important thing when we reading, is enjoy being with our friends the letters, it should be like a birthday party, pure fun!, sometimes adults don't know how to smile, but it's not their  fault, it’s because they forget to eat breakfast!. That is why when children read, should do it at your own pace, enjoying each letter, respecting every space, every silence,  that way, when others hear you reading,  would hear their favorite song.

When you become a friend of the letters, they come to you, they seek you, and you can never run away from them!, they become your best partners.

But, what if they don’t like my face?

Letters are always ready to make new friends!, they don't care if you're blond,brunette, if you have bugers  or if your clothes are dirty. Letters, like people but especially children, love to share stories,!, and you can’t  tell me that you don’t like stories when you go camping, during a long trip, or the love poems!. Like the story of the child who felt brave one day, and jumped into a mountain of letters to rescue the letter "q"?, all those stories are in the letters and they are waiting anxiously for a child to read them.

But if you like to read them, why should I write them?

Because, when we write, we have the amazing opportunity of knowing other people, sharing ideas. For example, if you write down what you eat for breakfast today, you're sharing it with someone else than you and your mom. When we write we are open a door to meet other persons. For example, would you know something about me if I would have written this story about letters?.