Reading with John

It has been a couple of months since I posted.  I normally look at various pictures I have taken and just write about those events.  But, I have taken so many pictures, I don't know if I would ever catch up, so I may just start posting random stories again. Particularly of things I don't want to forget in the years to come...as long as the internet and this blog still exist.

As a homeschooling family, I have been able to witness my children learn to read.  Dom I taught completely, struggling over words that looked similar and finally getting over the hurdle of sounding out to fluency. Will was a bit more self taught though I sat with him on the couch sounding out words in the earliest stages.  Molly was much more independent in her learning as she had taken speech lessons for a couple of years and was a pro at phonetics.  One day, she read the Chick-Fil-A bag and we realized she was literate.  And for the record, once your child can read, homeschooling multiple children becomes much easier (as long as they have a healthy fear of your reaction to them not completing assignments...)

John is in the early stages of his literacy.  He, more than any of the others, has a love of letters.  When we went to England, I packed a small bag of little toys and foam letters for him to play with on the plane.  It was a huge success.  He would pull out the letters and tell me what they were or ask which was which.  He was 2 at the time.  I always tell anyone who asks that they should pay attention to what interests their children and find as many books on that topic as possible at the library.  For years now, I have checked out as many alphabet books as I can find from the library. (Guess what John's Christmas book gift is about?)

This is not the book, but he wanted this book read to him over and over and over again...huh, probably should have gotten him this book...ah well.  It is still at the library.

Probably the first word John could read was his name.  He gets a lot of practice of seeing his name.  As movie credits roll, we look for all of the children's names...guess who wins?  Will generally comes in second.  For the record...I don't think I've ever made the score board in this particular competition.

One day, Eric walked in to rinse John during his bath and discovered this complete sentence on the wall. Molly has taught John some smaller words and he is an eager pupil.  Actually, all three older kids are happy to put off their own lessons to teach John new things...like how to duel with a light saber. (Dom prefers handling PE)

Having spent so much time looking at letters, he is really good at finding words within words.  Especially favorite words.  The best example of this was one day he was staring at a Dunkin Donut Box and excitedly alerted me to the fact he saw KU! I have been eating Dunkin Donuts for years and never spotted this...Neither had Dominic...which makes me question if we love donuts more than KU basketball...

This is all leading up to one day in October as I read a chapter book to the others ('Jack', A novel length telling of Jack and the Beanstalk), and John is staring intently at the pages and realizing all of the letters make up individual words.  He and I read a couple of paragraphs together where he reads all of the small words and I read all of the larger words.  The other three weren't thrilled with this jarring version of the story, but I was.  Our little boy is on the cusp of literacy.  And he is not intimidated by a page full of words in small type.  It actually took me longer than it should have to realize I needed to read something a bit more age appropriate....like Go Dog Go! with him, but it was an exciting realization all the same.

 I don't want to forget these afternoons of him leaning against me asking where the words "Oh, No!" are or his excitedly pointing out words he recognizes.  These are all mainly small sight words for now, but he is starting to sound words out and I know it won't be long before he will be reading as well as his siblings.  Luckily, the rest of them and I have rediscovered our love of reading aloud this fall, so I am hoping the days of reading on the couch all snuggled together aren't as numbered as I might once have thought.