If you remember, back when I pulled Ben out of school one of his biggest disappointments was that all of his friends were reading Magic Treehouse books and he could not.
Ian had been reading Dolphins at Daybreak to Ben. Last week, when I had all the dental work, I could not keep reading it to him in the evening. He kept begging me to... and finally I said. "Look. I can't read. But, if you want, you can try reading and I will help you with the words you can't read." So we started reading together. To Ben's amazement he could now read about 90% of the works in the book! He was ecstatic. He immediately wanted to order the other book that he was dying to read, Tonight on the Titanic. (He has been really interested in the Titanic disaster since preschool). Of course, as you can imagine, I couldn't say No. We immediately ordered it.
I didn't even dare blog about this last week for fear that the magic would wear off after a couple of nights and he would lose the enthusiasm. I cannot even BEGIN to describe how PROUD I have been feeling that all of Ben's hard work and struggle is starting to pay off. I can clearly see that the phonemes we have studied, he can read; he cannot read the words with diphthongs and r-controlled vowels... which we have not studied yet. Wow. I know we still have a long ways to go before he is an independent reader... but I can see, for the first time, that glimmer of light up ahead. And so can Ben.
3 comments:
What feelings you and Ian must be feeling seeing it all "click" for Ben! Such great news! He must feel so proud of himself and enjoy being able to read it on his own with a little parental help. A new world is opening up for him.
Is the school where he is going to camp one of the ones you had been considering? That's good that he is making friends and enjoying his camp experience there this summer.
He sure has made such leaps these past six months! Shows what a good teacher (mom) is!
Hopefully the Titantic exhibit will travel to Atlanta so you can take the boys since Ben has an interest from the book.
Oh, Katya!
YAYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!! I'm thrilled for you all!!!!!!!
The Titanic book is super, too! Katya LOVED it. She devoured the non-fiction companion book to it, too, and we're going to the Titanic museum exhibit in Hartford when we get to CT.
April 8, 2009 "Magic Tree House: The Musical" will be in Atlanta... You might want to get tickets NOW before they're all sold out... Wish we'd be in the USA to take the girls when it's in CT...
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