Ok... a kiddo reading. Just an average photo. But this represents so much more to me! Shannon was just a little slower than other kids her age learning to read. One of her early teachers scolded, pressured and assigned a 2" thick stack of extra summer homework for her. (That stack of papers went straight to recycling and I just kept reading to her every night!) We then enrolled Shannon in a local charter school where the focus was more on the *enjoyment* of learning than on the *speed* of learning. Shannon learned all the mechanics of reading and was able to read what was required. But she didn't read for fun. She did, however, continue to love being read to at bedtime. And she started helping to choose interesting chapter books. A few months ago, she even began asking me to leave her light on so that she could read another chapter or two.
Shannon forgot to bring a book with her on vacation. The first night, we borrowed a book from the club room where we are staying. I read a couple of chapters. She finished the book the next morning. Time for a visit to the bookstore! (Gee... twist my arm a little! So exceedingly difficult to spend a couple hours surrounded by shelves full of amazing reading material!) Shannon browsed around the childrens section but couldn't find anything *hard enough*! She didn't want to finish her book in a day :o) I showed her the young adult section and we spent a happy hour reading backs of books. We found a book that she immediately decided was THE ONE.
Soooo... what makes reading this book so amazing? Not only did Shannon choose the book for its more difficult reading level, but she is 1/3 of the way through it already. I have only read two chapters. AND... I missed reading the first few chapters! Yup... she chose and *began reading* this book on her own :o)
Have a happy day!
Always so nice when they start reading for enjoyment :> Nice to see her progress. :>
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