Reading!!

The other day, Mom and I took my kiddos down to see my grandmother and my brother David. It's about a 4-hour trip when the weather is good and we drive straight there, but in this particular tale the weather was nasty and we took a 2 1/2 hour detour through Tennessee. (The conversation was great, though, and the trees had really begun to bloom, in case anyone else was considering missing an exit and also taking the tour To the End of the World..)

While we were driving, Mom suggested that she and I write children's books. Kaela and Ben had been just amazing in the backseat, getting along, watching Veggie Tales, and being very patient and sweet. When Mom and I began throwing out ideas for characters and plot lines for our stories, Kaela goes, "All this talk about children's books makes me want to read this book to Ben!" Then she picked up If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, and read the entire book to him!!! Now, Kaela loves math, and we practice math all the time, but reading has never really excited her. So far, we had just learned about 15 sight words, and I had done a bunch of word families with short vowel sounds with her (hat, mat, fat, cat, etc.) So when she read "excited," "broom," and "probably" with no trouble, I just about dropped my teeth! It wasn't like she had memorized the book, either. We've only read that one a few times, and since then she's read a couple of others, cover to cover!

Is this how kids learn to read??? The only ones I teach reading to have reading disabilities, and it's a very prescribed, direct reading plan that I use at school with lots of phonics. This was totally different! We're all just so excited for her! Way to go, Sis!!!!! Whoo-hoo!!