“You must be the change you wish to see in the world.”

I've written about it many times before but I think that many parents seriously underestimate their children and the amount of information they take in at a young age. Opeie literally blows us away most days with the things he comes out with and his infectious playful personality. I think it's all because we really take the time to listen to or translate what he is actually saying rather than just dismissing it as jibberish (like many parents would).

We were asked by a friend of Mrs M's if we would review a book for her and it was Opeie's big old brain that has been the motivation for the start of the post. When the book arrived I placed it on the sofa ready to read at bed time that evening but as we sat  on the sofa that afternoon Opeie opened the book to look at the pictures and then started reading (or though it seemed). "We don't eat cows, we don't eat sheep, we don't eat pigs and we don't eat chickens" he happily read to himself. What blew our mind was that we hadn't told him what the book was about. 

The book in question was 'we're vegan' by Anna Bean. An introduction into veganism for young children. Ever thought that Vegans were just crazy people that only eat lettuce leaves? It seems to be the most cliche opinion of most people eating a western diet. This book makes it a little more clear and I love that it is aimed at young children. If you eat a plant based diet as a family then it is important to educate your children and this book is a great first step.

With simple colourful illustrations it's really appealing to children and when we did read it to Opeie he really enjoyed it. For me the one thing that let it down was that it concentrated on veganism from an animal advocacy point of view and I think there should have been a mention of other reasons, health, sustainability etc. Personally you can't beat rhyming books when it comes to younger readers especially when it's a serious message, hearing it in rhyme seems to help the information stick (its why I'm such a huge Dr. Seuss fan). I'm not sure if Opeie's some sort it literacy genius or maybe it was just coincidence but Opeie's message was clear and although he has only just turned three he seemed very passionate about it.

It was lucky we were practicing his writing that afternoon, because When asked 'why?' We don't eat cows, sheep, pigs and chicken I used Opeie's very intelligent and heart warming response as his writing exercise...

I'm so proud of that little boy of ours.