Joy!

Well, it finally has happened!

After about 18 months of hard work in phonics and the craziness that is the English language, checking out stacks of audiobooks and beginning readers, reading aloud til my voice is tired and just gently, gently encouraging her...Lexi IS A READER, BY CHOICE!

She's been able to read at about a 2nd grade level (by my calculations) for a while now but for the first time, she has confidence in her skills and has been reading stacks of books to me by choice. Oh, happy day!

Last week, Lexi disappeared for a while at the library and came back to me with an armload of beginning reader books and a questioning look in her eye. I considered limiting the number of books we checked out (since we owe the library over $9.00 in fines right now due to that time we filled a suitcase with books and misplaced some of them, oops) but then I stopped and said, "Sure, throw them in the bag!"

I'm so glad that I did. She is eagerly picking up the books and reading fluently with little help. I knew she could do it, but now SHE knows she can do it, and that is just so cool. She's reading me books about the sun, amphibians, mammals, the planets, and even tried out a beginning chapter book this morning and discovered that she could read it. I can tell she is proud of her new skill.

"Mom, can we add this to school? Like every day, I pick out a book and read it to you?" she asked.

Um, of course kid. OF COURSE!

We're taking a hiatus from reading lessons to just dive into the pleasure that is reading for enjoyment.

All of her (and my, I guess) hard work has paid off.

I have a reader!

I'm so grateful for the opportunity to teach her.