The Joy of Reading...

I have been a bit concerned about the level at which Ethan was reading. Here we spent several thousands of dollars on his kindergarten education and he was reading, but would pretty much sound out each word with the exception of a few site words, which made reading painstaking for him (and me). Before summer got here I had it in my mind that I was going to TEACH Ethan to read. I was going to require this much reading per day, this much site work, etc... then I started reading a lot of books that really encourage just simply READING to your child.

Now before you gasp in horror, thinking that I never read to my child, hold on to your soapboxes! Sure, I read to my kids, but it used to be a story here, a story there, perhaps one in the middle of the day and surely a few at night before bed. But a wise women told me that you should be reading about 1 1/2 hours per day to your child out loud. EVEN IF your child can read on their own, they should still HEAR you read out loud to them. Boy was I sorely missing the mark on the amount of time I was spending reading to my kids.

Since Ethan had been in private school our weekly trips to the local library had taken a FAR backseat to other events we had to fit into our busy schedule. Now that summer was here, our calendar wide open, we have been devouring books. We'll go to the library and come out with two incredibly full bags of books. Some chapter books, some picture books, some easy readers, and some not so easy.

I read to them in the morning, I read to them in the afternoon, I read to them before bed. The result....

Ethan is reading. And I mean really reading. We just read "Grizzwold"...it's an I Can Read Book with about 64 pages total. With minimal, and I mean minimal, help, he read the whole book very fluidly, without sounding many things out. He was so proud of himself and I was over the moon. It's like something just clicked inside. And being there to see this occur in your child...wow...how
awesome!

I really haven't done anything with him other than read to him. It's amazing how that can translate into helping your child read better on his own, but by golly, it worked!