Every single day of my son’s life, from the very first night at home, we have been preparing him for an all-important transition, and he is now on the cusp. Infant toys and toddler games and preschool projects all selected intentionally to prime his mind for the moment I’m sure will happen in the coming months or weeks, when the flame of literacy ignites.
I watched the initial smoke rising over the last year, and over the summer especially, when he started to be able to guess at words through context by thinking carefully about the first couple of letters. He can already recognize a few very short words: cat, car, mom, train, but has not been able to read sentences beyond “I love you” (he sees that written often, usually with a “-Mom and Dad” below).
I have told him many times throughout his life that reading is the key that unlocks the whole world. That when he is able to read, he will have the answer to every question and the map to every treasure. The depths of our emotions and the far reaches of our creativity, our history and heritage and the accumulated knowledge of humanity are all waiting for him to discover when he can finally read. It has been my duty and joy to guide him to this point, but now I can only watch and wait for him to make that final leap into literary fluency. It is a thrilling time for our family, and I could not be more proud of my brilliant baby.
We had a great time at dinner picking letters out of our alphabet soup and thinking of words that start with them, and I hope he continues the game with his friends when he gets the leftovers in his lunch. The key to this soup is knife work — the chicken and vegetables need to be uniformly cut into a ¼ inch dice, and you get extra credit for homemade chicken bone broth. You can use chicken breast if you wish, but I find that breast dries out when cut in such tiny pieces, so thigh is better. Vegan option: Add 1 pound mushroom — ¼ inch dice — and substitute vegetable stock.
Alphabet Soup
Ingredients
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken thighs, ¼-inch dice
2 cups diced onion
1 cup diced celery
1 cup diced carrot
1 large russet potato, peeled and diced
3 tablespoons minced garlic
2 teaspoons Italian seasoning blend
1 teaspoon white pepper
Salt to taste
1 can petite diced tomatoes
1 bag alphabet noodles (find them in the Latin food section)
6 cups broth
Directions:
Wash and dice all your vegetables. Store the diced potato in cold water to prevent browning. Set aside.
Bring the broth to a simmer before adding the garlic, onion, and celery. Cook for 10 minutes.
Add the carrot, potato, and diced tomatoes and return to a simmer. Cook for another 10 minutes.
Add in the chicken, Italian seasoning, and noodles. Stir gently but continuously until the chicken is cooked and the noodles are tender- about another 10 minutes.
Taste and season with salt and white pepper.
Serve with extra napkins.
