Reading

Collin loves to read. As a little baby, he and I laid on the floor together and looked up as I read story after story, poem after poem. I especially enjoyed reading Shel Silverstein, and he especially loved the Sandra Boynton books! Then, as he got older, we re-read and re-read his favorites. He used to climb onto his couch with his favorite books and read to himself. It was adorable then - and it's adorable now.

As he's gotten older, he has continued to read to himself and enjoy story time - at home and at school. He was one of the first kids in his class to master the concept of sitting still to listen at storytime. (Although he does have to remember to be a quiet listener because he often echos the story - I think it's his way of memorizing the lines, the plot and the pages.)

Then in the last six months, he expressed a lot of reading frustration. He felt "stuck." He would pick up the books, not know or remember the words or the full plot, and be unable to use his imagination to carry him through the pages. Wonderously, he bridged that gap in the last two weeks and suddenly is skyrocketing on marvelous adventures in the pages of his tales. What's even more exciting is that he's been "reading" to Owen and explaining to Owen how he can use his imagination when he doesn't remember all the words or picks up a new book. I love it! Collin read Owen a football story last night, and on every page the Cougars ran for a touchdown! It was the highest scoring game against the Dawgs the Cougs ever had! And Owen absorbed every minute of it - laughing when Collin would dramatize the story and cheering with Collin at at the end: "Hurray, Little Cougar, you made the winning score!" It was adorable.

THEN Collin set Owen up and told him to try on his own (and Owen did try - too cute!) and Collin sat on his bed with a book we hadn't read in a while. He looked at it very closely. I listened very closely. And - drum roll please because this is new and exciting and very big - he started sounding out the letters of the words and reading! I quickly drew close to assist and support. I couldn't believe he was putting together the sounds of multiple letters and discovering words! It was totally awesome! He read a few words and went to bed so proud of himself!!

And the first word Collin ever read to himself: T-A-R-Z-A-N. Awesome!