He Reads

Last night, after I had been reading books to the boys for about thirty minutes, Zane said "Mom I want to read one." Zane never says this. I ask him if he wants to try to read parts of books all the time and he rarely does. He can read the little three word sentence, rhyming word books, which he pretty much has memorized at this point, but never goes beyond that. He then gave me the huge honors of picking out which book he could read. And I went for it, the big dog, no pun intended, Go Dog Go!!!

What occurred after that was truly a breath taking moment for me. Zane proceeded to sit still and read the entire book. There were a few words here and there he couldn't quite sound out, but for the most part he knew all the words or could sound them out. Zach arrived home about half way through the book and Zane, my super active, possibly ADHD child, did NOT throw the book down and run away to tell Daddy about our fun day. He kept reading his book, making sure to keep eyes on Daddy so he could be sure that Daddy was seeing his reading breakthrough. He did, ever so briefly show Zach his new dinosaur mask, but then left it with Zach while he picked right back up where he had left off. (THIS IS HUGE!!!)

Zane finished the whole book and reacted the way I was feeling inside, he broke out into a dance. A dance of pure joy and celebration of him reading his first 'real' book. He was beaming with pride, as were his parents.  It's not everyday that you get to see the world of reading open up to your child, the light bulb came on, and he truly enjoyed it. He wasn't begrudgingly trying to say random words he knows, he was into the gripping story of Go Dog Go. What's with the hats? Will the boy dog ever like her hat choice? "Why are their so many dogs on top of the tree? Why don't they have a tree house? Very entertaining stuff.

I know what a lot of people are probably thinking, "Lots of kids are reading well at five, this isn't ground breaking, it's just the normal time kids learn how to read." This is true, but the struggle to get Zane to show any interest in learning how to read, something I love to do, has been very difficult. Reading isn't fast paced. It's hard to make learning letter sounds and sight words into something tangible or exciting. Believe me I have tried everything and Googled all the tricks. There were lots of days where I washed my hands of the task and decided that his kindergarten teacher would have to figure it out. But every once in a while I would catch a glimpse of him really getting it, if even for a moment. Or he would come home from his two days of Pre-K a week with a whole new list of sight words he could read and spell after two days. So I knew he could do it, I knew we were close, and I knew he would love it once he figured it out. A kid with as big of an imagination as Zane will love all the worlds that books will open up for him.

Zane's extra year at home is almost over. My goal for the year, beyond another year of fun and having my boy with me instead of at school all day, was for him to know at least some words going into kindergarten. I wanted him to be armed with a  little bit of confidence when it came to the tough academic parts of school. I know that a lot of the other parts of kindergarten (sitting still, being quite, not eating all day, not taking naps, just to name a few) could be very challenging for my very active boy. But at least now he can feel smart, get some wins under his belt, a few gold stars, while he starts to figure out how to behave in a classroom. Tomorrow I officially register him for Kindergarten. I have tried to picture where we would be when he went to school since he was born. I never could have guessed that his grade school would be called Prairie Vale, not to be confused with my grade school, Pleasant Vale. I'll take it as a good sign. Zane is very excited about kindergarten, which was my other goal for the year. So I guess it's time I got on boar and get excited too.