Wednesday, October 19, 2011

The Most Powerful Tool

You know what is amazing?  Watching your children learn.  I have always loved watching babies figure things out, learning techniques; observing those proud "ah-ha" moments.  Recently, Charlie has figured out how to overcome all of our baracades in the family room to keep him from stairs, electrical cords, and bathrooms.  It is awesome, just wonderful to see his joy in this accomplishment (I have a video of one of these moments). 

Well, I really thought that this excitment (of watching your child learn) would be gone by the time the kids were in school.  Yes, they are obviously still learning, but it's different.  For one, I'm not there.  They are taught in a school by a teacher, so I don't really get to see these moments often now.  Tonight was different.  Katie is learning to read and it's wonderful!  She feels so powerful!  I just love it.

I honestly think one of the most powerful tools and empowering abilities is to be able to read.  Without this, you may feel lost, alienated, and well, just without so much information, knowledge, and entertainment.

Katie has been reading various books (aloud to us) assigned to her by her teacher every night. Most are very simple books and she rarely struggles with a word.  Tonight, we went to a book fair at the school and Uncle Joe bought the girls about 20 chapter books.  (THANKS, UNCLE JOE).  Katie is beginning her first chapter book.  I have read her several chapter books (small ones) over the past 15 months or so, but this is the first she is reading.  It took about 20 minutes, but Kate read 3 pages aloud all by herself, sounding out difficult words like magical, librarian, adventure, and ancient.  I am so proud of her.  To understand what she is reading, she will slowly read every word and then when she gets to the end of the sentence she'll reread it fluently. 

Way to go, Katie! Soon, you will have your own reading light and read yourself to sleep like Delaney, Mom, and Daddy!  We are so proud of your hard work and determination.
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1 comment:

Marcia said...

That is amazing! Jenna is working hard at it too. And I have been loving it! I can't wait for Jenna to get there! Congrats to your smarty!!