Reading and Writing, Boy

Shane read 26 "-at" words with me the other day. There are some fun sentences in there ("Drat! That fat cat pat bat scat.") 

I stopped before "shat." The goal was to read and rhyme, not acquire vocabulary.

It took less than 10 minutes. I would have let Shane stop whenever. He wanted to continue. He liked it when I highlighted each word he read. 

I don't consider myself a Type A-Tiger-Push-My-Kid-to-Exhaustion parent. I do consider reading to be an important life skill. It's powerful and fun.

Eventually, school will push decoding, so I try to focus on the joy. We go to the library, doodle on pages, and read whatever Shane picks out. I point at words as I read and let Shane guess at the simple ones. It's nothing fancy. We don't read every day and rarely for more than 15 minutes at a time. I'd love to read a lot more than we do. I suggest it often! ("That book looks awesome!" or "Which book is your favorite?"). Shane prefers TV. 

Nothing we do is revolutionary, but Shane's growth astounds me. He wants to learn and he has!

And it's not just his reading.

I draw with Shane fairly often. He likes to doodle tornadoes, garbage trucks, and Jupiter. I add details and label things for him. Sometimes, I work on my own pictures. That lasts until he gets interested and takes over. I taught him how to draw a flower on Frosty's hat yesterday ("Draw a circle for the middle of the flower and then draw circles all around it for the petals").

It helps our house is littered with composition notebooks. I make lists all the time.

I was reading something on the computer when Shane slipped me this note.

How could I not? I was blown away! It would have been a bad example not to get excited! Shane cackled.

He went for an encore performance, too!

I had no idea Shane could craft sentences on his own. I was half-annoyed when Carrie corrected "Git" before she charged me.

It became a game.

It was a fantastic teachable moment. I wish I could recreate that energy in my classroom on cue. Shane's like a sponge. He wants to learn. He thinks it's fun!