I mentioned last week that Tyler started an accelerated reading program at school. I had to laugh the first day he picked out a book to bring home. When I asked him what he picked, he said, “I don’t know. I can’t read the cover.” Turns out it wasn’t a common word, so he wasn’t truly in over his head.
He chose Grizzwold, by Syd Hoff. Hoff is the guy who wrote the Danny the Dinosaur and Sammy the Seal books I read when I was little, but I never read this one (that I remember). This book was about a big bear whose forest was chopped down, causing him to search for another home. It was 64 pages long, and Tyler insisted on reading the entire book in one sitting! He just had to know what was going to happen to that bear. I only helped him with a handful of words, which I thought was amazing.
His class is also celebrating Right to Read Week this week. Last Friday he brought home a paper to keep track of all the books he reads for one week. The note attached to it said if the paper was completed by this Friday (tomorrow), he would get a prize. Tyler mumbled the prize would probably be something exciting such as a sign that says “I love books”, but he has been persistent about filling that paper up anyway. (Our neighbor thought it would probably be a bookmark, which is probably more accurate and equally as exciting to a 6 year old boy.) We have only written down the books Tyler has read by himself, and tonight he finished his 20th book!
When my brother was over for dinner the other night, Tyler read a book to him. My brother said he remembers how annoying I was when I was learning to read. I insisted on reading everything I saw. It seems like Tyler is doing that, too. Signs at the grocery store, street signs, things in the house, things on my computer (over my shoulder); it’s all fair game. Tonight he was examining the paper mache balloons we made earlier this week and was apparently reading the newspaper strips. He suddenly put the balloon down and asked, “What is this about school shooting? What does that mean?” I guess we need to be careful about what we leave out now.
I remember how lost I felt when we were in Japan and I couldn’t read any of the signs. Once in awhile we would see a sign with the English translation, and the words I recognized seemed to jump out from all the garbled letters and symbols around it, suddenly making sense. I wonder if that’s how people just learning to read feel. Random lines and shapes are suddenly recognized as letters. Then one day the seemingly miscellaneous letters suddenly come into focus as a word, and it all makes sense.
A nice thought, I suppose, but probably not really how Tyler feels. Knowing how to read just makes it easier for him to read the instructions for his video games and ultimately means Mom will probably expect a little more out of him.
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2 comments:
Wow! He is still in kindergarten, right? I'm impressed!
Tyler has always had an incredible memory. I think that is certainly giving him an advantage in learning to read. He knows he's good at it, too, which makes him want to do even better.
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