So this blog is not just about work related things. If you are a full-time working mom, like me, then you know that we actually have more than one full time job. And when I finish the one that writes my name on a paycheck, I come come to the one that is more valuable the one I just left. Actually, I never stop my mom job...it actually makes me better at my producer job. :)
Ok, back to children who love to read. My daughter seemed to come out of the womb loving to read. From the moment that she ate through her first Golden Book book, she'd loved to read. "Read it again, Mommy", over and over and over again. I never had to help her study for a spelling word or learn a grammar rule or work on a phonics lesson. Nope and I totally and completely attribute that to her love of reading.
And then came my son. Brody started school her in TX and everything was different, so as a mom, I got thrown for a loop. When Brody failed his first spelling test in Kindergarten, (oh I'll never forget that frowny face sticker on the top of his paper...) I realized that this was a completely different ballgame than with Bailey. So, being the great mom that I am, I put all of the next week's "sight words" and the ones he had just failed to learn, all on little bl
ue sticky notes and attached all 16 of them to the bottom of our fridge. Just at Brody's eye level. And every day, he and I would go into the kitchen of our little apartment at the time, and sit in front of the fridge and practice our sight words. Now, let me just give you a picture into my world at this time. I pulled the sticky note with the word "MY" off the fridge and held it up to Brody. He looked over the top of it directly into my eyes and said "CAN". Calmly, I held the note a little higher so that his eyes would fall on it and repeated "My..m..m..my". And he said "my" and I put it back until a little later. So, a moment or two later, I pulled "MY" off the fridge again and said, "What is this word?" He again, looked over the top of my blue sticky note and said "CAN". Yes, you can see where this is going. Let me fast forward for you, on the 4th time that Brody looked over
the sticky note...wouldn't even look at it, and said "CAN", I just said "Yes, that's right!" and put it right back on the fridge to conquer another day! Well, Brody spent all of 1st grade attending "Reading Recovery" with a reading teacher who sent home "ouch words" - words in cards with bandaids that Brody needed to work on ( I know, regretting the sticky note moment now). But he did recover and in 2nd grade, was in the top reading group of his class! Success! But reading was like a battle at home. He was supposed to read 20 minutes every day. One time I sent him up for a book, and then found him reading it just a bit later. It was a book about the movie "Cars". It had pictures of scenes from the movie with a one sentence description at the bottom. I calmly said, "Bubby, that's really a picture book. It barely has any words." He looked at me with those beautiful eyes and said, "Don't worry mom, I am reading the scene from the movie in my mind." Well, how do you argue with that. So, now we're in 3rd grade and we start TAKS tests this year. It all counts. I've got to conquer this mountain in our lives!
ENTER THE DIARY OF A WIMPY KID! We bought these books for Brody from a Scholastic Book order and he began to read them. The first day, he read 100 pages - of a real chapter book! He finished that book and read Book #2 right away. I was amazed! I was hoping that his teacher didn't think we were cheating on his reading log since every day had "The Diary of A Wimpy Kid" on it. But it was happening! Brody was reading, chapter books, and ones that are listed at a 4th to 5th grade reading level. Then, for Christmas, Santa brought him a LED bendy Lightning McQueen book light, a digital bookmark that will keep up with your reading time (20 minutes a day) and "The Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Do It Yourself Book". And the next time we were all at church together, he said Mrs. Vicki in the hallway, "I love to read!" What? Yes, you heard me! My son loves to read! So, as "The Diary of A Wimpy Kid, The Last Straw" hit stores today, and of course, I had pre-paid for a copy of my son, who by the way was jumping up and down, standing in the doorway when I arrived home from work today with excitement for his new book...YES, I SALUTE YOU JIM KINNEY and send my SINCERE THANK YOU for writing a series of books that has finally helped me to see the love of reading in my son! And since Book #4 is already in the works, I'm feeling really good about 3rd grade reading!
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