The desire to learn to read
LJ has commented a couple of times that he wanted to read. I heard him. I wanted to work with him yet the demands of the days prevented us from sitting down and diving in to the program that I have used with the other 3 children. We did lots of pre-reading activities but for some reason that wasn't filling his desire to learn to read. I started to doubt he was ready when the teacher at the park program commented she didn't think he understood any of his letters. He kept asking so a couple of days ago, I pulled out the book, sat down with him and opened up the pages to the book. He was so excited. He bounced all over, I wondered if he was actually paying attention to what I was saying but he seems to understand each of the lessons. I am thinking he will likely learn to read as his older sister did while standing on her head on the couch or bouncing all over the room leaving me wondering if a single thing I was doing was actually being retained in her brain. It was. I have little doubt LJ is ready to learn as he has that pure joy when working together. The reading program also has a writing portion to it and with this he struggles but is still very interested. We will continue it as long as it works for us (we discontinued it for AJ due to frustration on his part with making everything mirrored). Its hard to believe this is the 4th time I have gone through this program (although the book looks like it as I bought it used 8 years ago) and will be the last. There is something so special about watching a child learn to read. After all according to A-girl "Reading is a nice thing to learn to do!"
