Little Reader

Bryn is finishing up grade one this year (I know! Grade One!!! *sniff*sniff*)  and throughout the year he's been taking home Little Readers to practice his reading.  It's been a slow moving process from when he first started the year until now. I have to admit that I was worried for him, thinking he'd never get it, even all the way back in January when he was still stumbling over words that I thought were simple ones, like and and the. :(  I didn't know what to do for him, though. How do you teach someone to read???  I am definitely not a teacher and there is a reason why I don't homeschool, even though I admire those who do, so I was hoping that he'd get it soon and that his teacher wouldn't call us aside to start some at-home teaching assignments for him!

I am happy to say that he has!  This weekend, he has read some books to his little brother and he's read his Little Reader book with no problems! I am so proud of him!

                                       

I got a chuckle out of his reading tonight though. He was reading a book called "Birthday Balloons" by Beverley Randell. I thought we'd read it before, but maybe it was a different one with a similar title because the story wasn't familiar to me.  As he was reading, he was showing me how he is starting to actually understand the story, as opposed to just reading words! That is so exciting to see! It's hard for a child to grasp the concepts and still take it all in at the same time, which is why sometimes a story can take 20 minutes as they keep getting distracted by the pictures!  In this particular book, a boy named Tom is given 6 balloons by his Poppa for his six birthday.

 Bryn reads the lines: "Here is your present, Tom," sad Nana. "Go on, Tom," said Mom... Bryn pauses. "Why?" he asks me, looking at the picture.
I laugh. "Continue reading..."
"Open the box."  He had stopped in the middle of the sentence!

And then later on the next page:
"Tom opened the box. He saw three little cars..."
Bryn looks at the picture. "There's more than three there!"
I laugh loudly. "Bryn, finish reading first!"
"Oh!" He turns back to the story, "...and three little trucks."
I shake my head. He ducks his head with a smile.
Silly boy!

But he's starting to get the idea, isn't he?  I think that is so great!  I am so relieved that he has managed to go from stumbling over small words to reading a whole book on his own in a few months!  Teachers are awesome!!!