Reading!

A big headline in our family’s educational news is:

“DJ Is Reading (in English) Now!”

He’s been reading a smattering of words for a while – and actually learned letters and basic phonetics (with E’s eager help!) over a year ago. But now he’s consistently reading “beginning reader” books. And he’s very excited about it all!

I actually find it very amusing when he literally shivers with delight, celebrating his reading of “word families” (loving how they follow patterns) or recognizing “sight words” (or “service words” or “wall words” or whatever they might get called) in random places (like in JM’s recent internet search for a video clip for him and E).

He was extremely pleased to get a perfect score on his latest quiz!

I’ve been wanting him to learn to read English before Spanish – because they’re so different and (more importantly for me) because E taught herself, figuring out the main differences between the phonetics of the two languages after asking a few basic questions while on a quick Christmas trip here, when she was only halfway through K-5 and learning to read English. Now that DJ is learning more and more pre-reading basics in Spanish in the afternoons, I’m trying to work with him more than ever in English.

This is my first time ever teaching reading. And although my first job, fresh out of high school, involved the immense privilege of working as the main assistant to a wonderful kindergarten (and first grade) teacher, I’ve frankly felt very intimidated by the idea of working “solo” on helping one of my own Little People develop such a vital, life-long, basic skill. But DJ is doing great!

And just a couple days ago, he read the first part of Romans 15:13 from our bedroom wall:

“May the GOD of HOPE fill you...”

The next day, still excited over that accomplishment, he drew a special picture for me and included that part of the verse, remembering and sounding it out – mostly on his own:

We’re obviously still working on the “silent e” aspect. And if you look carefully, you’ll notice that a few letters got mixed up, too. My favorite is the mix of English and Spanish phonetics in “FIU” [fill]. But I’m thankful for his eager progress!

[Please note some important details: He completed the picture, adding clothes. And he pointed out that he used the “greenish blue” marker for the eyes – in order to match his own!]