Help
Promote Literacy with Dr. Cooke &
Children's
Author Darrell House
Meet Miller the Green Caterpillar
Miller the Butterfly
Darrell had a special surprise when he went to Johnson Elementary
School
for a second Scott County Performance.
The students there have a butterfly garden, and one of their cocoons had hatched open that morning.
The children named the butterfly
"Miller" before releasing him.
Miller the Green Caterpillar
and Darrell's CD of children's songs, Underneath
the Cushions on the Couch,
are available in the Scott Memorial Hospital
Gift Shop
Children’s author and
musician Darrell House of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, recently paid a visit
to the Austin Elementary School Kindergarten students. The performance
was in the Austin Rural Enterprise Youth Development Center and was made
possible by William Cooke, M.D., of Foundations Family Medicine at the
Austin Medical Center. He made a second performance later in the day at
Johnson Elementary School.
House’s first book, Miller the Green Caterpillar, teaches children
that their dreams can sometimes come true. House sometimes supplies his
musical CD, Underneath the Cushions on the Couch, to the teachers so the
students know his songs before he comes to perform.
“What an incredible feeling. I am touched that I am a stranger,
but the students are already familiar with the tunes and start singing
along right away,” said House. “It is overwhelming.”
Dr. Cooke hopes to use his medical practice and the performance by Darrell
House to inspire the parents in Austin to read to their children.
“Through Foundations Family Medicine, I hope to help families find
a new love for reading and learning,” said Dr. Cooke. “Few
things could be more beneficial to a child’s success than families
reading together. By reading to their children, parents lay the foundations
of solid language and reading skills while strengthening relationships.”
Darrell House began the story telling part of his career because of a
life-long love of books.
“I have loved reading since I was 8 years old and received books
for Christmas,” said House. “I got The Wizard of Oz, Tom Sawyer
and Black Beauty, and I was hooked from then on. Now, I get an absolute
thrill watching the reactions on kid's faces when I read to them.”
House has performed for students of all ages from preschool through to
high school.
“When you make that connection, and they're in the very moment of
the story, there is nothing else quite like it,” Hose added. “If
there is a tender moment in a story, you can feel the tension as they
hang on every word. If something funny happens, the laughter erupts like
a symphony. It's a rare feeling to know you've reached someone on so basic
a level as to evoke a belly laugh.”
Dr. Cooke has experienced similar moments with his children.
“A whole new world of opportunity opens when adults read to children,”
said Dr. Cooke. “When a parent reads to their child they are invited
into a special place where deeper, more meaningful interactions take place.
Many of my most meaningful interactions with my children have taken place
while sharing a good book. My son and daughter have shared their hearts
with me during “story time” in ways that may never have happened
in any other setting. “
House has similar feelings about family closeness.
“Being so close to my daughters as they grew up gives me a great
perspective on what kids think is interesting,” he said. “I
bounced so much of my early material off of them before anyone else ever
heard it, they were my best sounding board. Now they are 18 and 19 and
they still love the old songs, and are always ready to give their opinion
of my new works.”
The storytelling that House does is a direct outgrowth of his reading
for children.
“I love being able to put the book down and tell the story my way.”
He said. “Stories are so alive and subject to change. Just because
you start here... doesn't mean you have to end up there. The more you
embrace that aspect of stories and poetry and songs, the more free you
are.”
House uses the freedom of story telling with a game. One of his favorite
exercises is ‘The What If?’ game.
“What if this happened? What if that happened? You can build whole
stories just asking those questions over and over,” he said. “When
I write in verse, I try to find unusual rhymes that might drive the story
in a different direction. It's all very exciting and the current success
that I am experiencing is part of my own special dream coming true.”
“Darrell House’s book, Miller the Green Caterpillar, teaches
the virtue of holding onto dreams and not losing hope,” said Dr.
Cooke. “One of my dreams is to make an impact in the lives of the
children and their families in this community on a deeper level than what
traditional medicine has to offer. At Foundations Family Medicine we hope
to fulfill this dream through initiatives such as this one.”
For more information about Dr. Cooke or the Austin Medical Center, call
794-8100.
For More Information on Darrell
House,
go to www.darrellhouse.com
.