Learning to Read for the Last Time
Looking back on this year.....
This guy learned to read this year!
Actually, he started during his Kindergarten school year, but we did a lot of Montessori activities with reading before we moved to one of my favorite purchases of all time - the Abeka Reading Handbook. I found this little handbook when AW was learning, and struggling, to read at BW's age. Something about this book, and definitely the approach it takes, clicked for him. It has had as much and more success with the three little readers after him that also used it to learn to read.
He absolutely loves to read now, and will read everything he can find, regardless of how big or small it is! His current favorites are our Usborne Shine-A-Light books!
These are the three he got for Christmas:
(No, these aren't affiliated links or anything! I linked to my friend's Usborne site, which is who I use for my Usborne purchases! We love them, and I bet you would, too!)
I just had to share about this, because it's almost bittersweet. I admit I am glad that they are all reading now, simply because it was one of my biggest goals is to make sure they all read, and read well. Too many children never grasp it completely, and go through life with the most basic reading skills. I also have to say, I haven't cornered the market on the best way to teach them by far - I just used the process that others cornered the market on ;) I have some that love to read, some that generally loathe it, some that understand and are motivated to do so if it's going to benefit them (think, reading programs, incentives, etc) and some that I still work with to make sure they are fully comprehending what they read - and it might shock you to know who is who, but I won't divulge that ;)
It's also bitter, only because it means my babies are becoming more and more NOT babies every day. The fact that KW turned 13 last year, officially ushering us in to the teenage years, and that BW will be 7 in a few days, which means he's closer to the teenage years than the baby years, is a hard pill to swallow.
I cherish each day I get to watch them learn and grow, even the hard days (which sometimes are cherished after they are over, and not always during!) because time is passing so swiftly. My husband and I just celebrated our 15th anniversary this past December, and the thought of what our lives might look like after another 15 is sobering, and exciting, and a bit riddled with anxiety!
I will always be so thankful and grateful to God and my husband, who provides so well for us and gives me the chance to be home, so I can be with all 5 of these crazy, silly, frustrating, goofy, lovely, bright children, watching them grow up, seeing them develop, guiding them in the right direction.
For now, though, I'm going to go and enjoy the moment, since BW just got extremely excited to recognize classical violin music on a computer game he's playing (that he recognized from our many hours listening to those *ahem* sometimes boring but needed composer biographies in the car! Please tell me I'm not the only one that uses CDs to educate my children as much as anything else often!)
It is amazing to see how the kids are all growing up so much, and the fact that he recognized some classical music in a game just goes to show how rounded their education really is. Congrats on doing such a great job!
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