The room reverberated with the sound of small feet running in place and small hands clapping. Leading the charge in the front of the room with a big smile on his face, Dr. Eric L. Holland clapped and ran in place just as hard as the 50-plus three to four-year-olds.
The energy in the room was palpable which coincidentally enough made sense because Dr. Holland was reading to the children, and his book of choice was “Energy Makes Things Happen.”
Before he started reading, he asked a quick question.
“Who likes reading?”
A chorus of, “I do,” and lots of small hands shot into the air at the question.
When it comes to reading, Dr. Holland doesn’t just sit back and stoically turn pages. He brings the story and also engages the kids with questions. Before he started he even warned the teachers at Tallatoona Head Start on Tuesday morning that he was probably about to get the kids riled up.
Over the next 20 minutes, he read the book interspersing the book's words with questions for the children.
He followed along with the book demonstrating ways that you can use your energy including pushing, waving and throwing. At each action, Dr. Holland demonstrated it and encouraged the kids to do the same thing.
Along the way the book talked about milk, giving another great moment to get the kids interacting.
“Who likes milk?” A ton of hands hit the air.
“What do we have with milk?” The ensuing answer of, “cookies,” literally echoed off the classroom walls.
“Where does milk come from?” A strong chorus of, “cows,” rang out. “What sound do cows make?” Again the room almost shook as almost every kid erupted with a big, “moo”.
As the book ended, Dr. Holland had all the children stand up, run in place, clap their hands and finished it all off with a big hug. A hug so forceful it almost knocked him down, bringing lots of smiles and even a few giggles with it.
While the kids were definitely having fun, it was tough to tell who had more fun, them or Dr. Holland.
"It's a lot of fun reading to kids this age because they create a lot of energy,” he said. “The book was built off of creating energy to move items. And I thought a lot of energy was created in there today.”
One of Rome City Schools main focuses is on literacy and reading and the chance to get out and read to kids is something Dr. Holland cherishes.
“It's very important to read to kids. My whole goal is to strike the curiosity for them to hopefully encourage them to read, to be curious, and to learn,” he said. “That's the goal every time I come in contact with kids. I just want to strike their curiosity. If I can just spark their brain, hopefully that spark may just be the brain that changes the world.”