Reading

I’ve talked about reading a lot here, about how Olivia and I settled in each night and read books together. Well, what I really mean is that we settled in and I read books to her.

Except last night…she read an entire book to me. Yes, there were probably only about four words in the entire book but she read them. Did you take note of those last three words?

SHE READ THEM. She read the words to me, not after I’d already told her what the words were. Not after I read the title, pointing to each word as I spoke.

No. She read the title to me. Then, I opened the book and she read the words from the pages.

She read the words: ok, go, stop, red, and green.

I’m not going to lie and say that I didn’t have concerns about whether Olivia would easily learn to read. Heck, at this point I still don’t think it’s easy for her. But I do know she’s learning. She’s taking it all in and processing it and it’s showing.

It may take a few more years for her to be able to pick up a Junie B. Jones book and read it aloud the way Alyssa did when she was six. But that’s okay. That’s fine. The fact that she is learning, that she is processing, that she wants to do these things is a wonderful thing to me.

I’ve always been a reader. I love, love, love books. My downtime is after the girls are asleep and I’m snuggled in bed with a flashlight and a book.

Whenever Olivia asks to watch a movie, she specifically requests, “With the words.”

She wants the closed captioning or subtitles to run along with the movie.

This drives Alyssa crazy. She huffs, “Why does she want that? She can’t even read!”

Tom and I always answer, “She’s learning to read and this helps. Shut it.”

Okay, so maybe we don’t tell Alyssa to shut it but we do tell her that her sister is learning to read and the words on the screen help. (Then again, maybe we do tell her to shut it…)

I want to encourage Olivia’s curiosity for words and deciphering the code that is the written language. I want her to continue to process and grow and learn and become all she can be. I want to help her any way I can and I know that continuing to read to her, letting her read to me and yes, even having the closed captioning on the television are all steps in her journey to reading.