Read It and Reap

For the past several weeks Jack Henry (pictured in the post below) has been learning to read. Every night after his bath when he is clean and snuggly and smelling sweet, he’ll bring me his reading book and we’ll pick up where we left off the night before. Last night he added the long "o" sound to his collection. Four weeks ago he couldn’t read a word. Last night he read, "The old man was cold. He did not have a hat or a coat or socks."

After we finish one lesson he always asks to do just one more. Usually we do. Then when we're finished he likes to peek ahead to the following lesson to see if he’ll be learning a new sound. He becomes borderline giddy if he sees that there's a new sound on the page. The next morning he’ll say, “Mom, we have a new sound tonight!” And later that morning, “Mom, we have a new sound tonight!” And then after lunch, “Mom, we have a new sound tonight!” And then before bath time, “Mom, we have a new sound tonight!”

And so it continues, night after night of new sounds and words, and the next thing you know my little too-good-to-be-true four-year-old is reading.

If I had to make a list of the most rewarding things I have done in my 38 years, teaching my children to read would rank pretty high. There is something about sitting with my children and hearing them slowly sound out a word letter by letter. When they realize they have actually read a word, they look up at you surprised and delighted and proud. Then they begin to move a little faster and the words become easier to read. And one day you're sitting in church and your four-year-old starts reading words on the worship guide. Or you're driving in the car and he reads words from a street sign. Or he is sitting eating his breakfast and starts reading words from the cereal box. And there it is, that same look on his face: complete surprise and delight that all these letters combine to make words and he can actually read them!

I have reaped a great reward from teaching my children to read. I can see why Phyllis Schlafly says it's the most fulfilling thing she's ever done.

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