Thursday, April 7, 2011

Enter Reading

Last Friday I went to the babe's class to read with the kids.  The first time I did this last fall, I thought I'd be reading stories to the class.  But I had it the wrong way around.  The kids read stories to me. 

It is quite amazing to have these little people read to you.  Something I have taken for granted for so long is a huge challenge for my daughter and her classmates.  I can't really remember learning to read but sitting with kids who are reading for the first time is an amazing thing.  You can see their brains working overtime as they sound things out and put letters together.  

As the babe is in a Montessori school, kids learn at their own pace.  I highly support this approach, but I was a tad concerned after leaving the babe's class last Friday as she had not hit the phase in her education where the teachers thought she was ready to sit down with a beginner book.  We all know it's not good to compare your children to others, but I was left wondering what was wrong with the babe?  How come some of her classmates, who are the same age, are already "reading" at school and she isn't?

Timing is a funny thing.  On Tuesday I picked the babe up and guess what she excitedly announced?  "Mama! Miss. Faye rang the bell and announced to the whole class that I was ready to read my first book!  I got to sit with her and read Dot!"



Not only did she get to read Dot at school, she brought it home to read it to us as well.  It was a beautiful thing and I was so ridiculously proud.

The fun didn't end with Dot.  Yesterday the babe got to read Sam.  And yet again, she brought her new book home to read to us.  After working through the newly formed habit of relying heavily on pictures to read (more like remember) the words, the babe proved to us that she was able to get through the whole book without looking at any of the pictures.



So here we go on a brand new adventure.  My daughter, who was just a 4 month old baby only 4 years ago, is starting to read.  It's amazing what can happen in such a short time.

1 comment:

Mamabeing said...

wow...that must be an amazing feeling! so proud of her and of you, Mama! breathe in all that goodness.