Show me the Mommy - Reading Edition

I have to send a big shout out and thanks to LauraC for one of her posts this week. One of her sons had a breakthrough with reading (congrats Nate!) and it served as a reminder that it had been awhile since I had assessed Jadyn's willingness to learn to read. Or maybe I should clarify.

Jadyn is very eager to learn to read. However, she has not been very willing to learn to read from me. She knows her letters (still confuses b and d) and her letter sounds but beyond that she does not want to work with me on stringing those sounds together. If I take out a book, she would much rather look at the pictures and make up what the words are on the page. It's just easier. This has been perfectly fine by me. I am in no hurry. And frankly, her way of reading has been quite cute.

So anyway, I took out our Hooked on Phonics workbook the other day and we sat and worked on stringing sounds together for awhile and then, she read her first book! Only one book is not enough for Jadyn, so she read 1, 2, 3 more books. Four books in one day! I was so proud. She was so proud. She also re-read a book to Daddy and Jake. It must be hard to be the younger child when it comes to reaching milestones. Jake kept saying things about how easy the book was, like it was no big deal but we set him straight and made sure that Jadyn had her moment.

So what does this have to do with show me the mommy? Well one of my favorite parts of the day is reading with the kids. Of course usually that entails me reading to them. Right now they are just absolutely in love with the SkippyJonJones books. They crack up at this little Siamese cat who thinks he is a chihuahua. I just don't have the sense of humor to "get" these types of books. But I digress. More often now, I am not the one reading. Jake's abilities have really taken off this year and he is reading almost at a second grade level. Now, Jadyn is starting to read and very excited to show everyone that she can do it too.

As someone who has always (well, almost always) been an avid reader, seeing my kids reading and enjoying reading has been really exciting for me too. But even when they can read it themselves, I will always be willing to read SkippyJonJones (or whatever they are into at the time), if it means getting to spend special time with them like this: