Reading

Ok, so I have been flooded with questions about this whole Jeremy reading thing (how crazy that anyone reads this blog). Even his teachers at school are a bit flummoxed. Then, I got the Baby Center weekly email about Jeremy and it was called: "Your 4 Year Old: Reading". Basically, at 4, he should now BEGIN to recognize a few letters. After that, he will begin to learn their sounds, then by age 6 or 7 he should be reading sentences. Hmm. I suppose since Jeremy is our first I did not really realize how odd it was that he can read sentences now. So, here is a quick rundown of what got us to a just-turned 4 year old who can read:

• We read to Jeremy every single night before he goes to bed. His entire life - that is not an exaggeration. At 2 weeks old, we read books to our kid. I think this is the single most important thing. He has to know that books are awesome, and the fact that we read an average of 5 books a day to him his whole life developed that love.
• We let HIM pick the books. We read some of the same books every day for a year. It was so boring, but it is not about me - I already love to read - it is about him discovering what he wants. The fact that he had an opinion about what we read was great, so we did it.
• We offered a variety of books and put them at kid level. I have seen some kid bedrooms where the books are neatly arranged on a high shelf collecting dust. They are all the same size and shape and look oh so pretty. That's called decorating, not reading. We have over-sized books, books that fit in the palm of your hand, cloth books, hardback books, board books, pop-up books, sticker books, magnet books, musical books...And Jeremy can reach them all, grab what he wants, and mix and match. It is not neat or tidy, but it is pretty fabulous to me.
• We challenge him. Say Jeremy chose to read The Cat in the Hat and Skippyjon Jones in Mummy Trouble. Ok, we would start bedtime by reading those two books. Then, when he would agree to anything to postpone going to sleep, I suggest we read Beowulf (the kid version we got from Aunt Cheri). Excellent. A whole new conversation about Grendel emerges, imagination ignites, and Jeremy will ace Senior Year literature class. Win, win, win (I miss Michael Scott). The next night, I guarantee he will choose Beowulf as one of his books.
• This guy. My dad did it for me and all of my siblings - voices, dramatic reenactments, constant recommendations for new books. Our entire family reads voraciously and that began with my Dad who reads like 4 books a week. Find the idol of your kid's family and have that person read to him. Pop walks on water to Jeremy, so if Pop says reading is the bee's knees, then it is. Period.
• It starts as a game. Young kids need it to be fun and engaging. These Melissa and Doug puzzles are amazing. We kept ours for Violet and it is hilarious - the pieces are chewed on, peeling, gross, and warped with slobber. He was around 18 months when Jeremy would empty it out and we would systematically put all of the pieces back with me saying, "A is for aaaapple." He loved it and we would do the entire puzzle four or five times in a row every day. Soon, I realized I could tell him to bring me the K and he would pick up the correct letter.
• We surrounded ourselves with letters. The puzzle was only one of many. I made this border for their room from the RA supplies in my office at work, we had this ABC mat that he played on and we would jump from letter to letter. I also got this poster at the dollar store and it has been hanging in the room for at least 3 years, if not more. Not a day went by that we did not review letters, mostly as part of play time in the room. I once noticed him muttering after he went to bed, and realized he was staring at the letters on the wall and reciting them - the alternative to counting sheep!
• Speech therapy. This was huge. As everyone knows, Jeremy had a severe speech disorder and did not begin speaking at all until he was 2.5 years old. In our early speech sessions, if we managed to get a single grunt or sound from him in an hour we considered it a successful session. Brian and I were given tons of "homework" to work with him on producing different one syllable sounds - anyone with kids with disabilities, it is so true that 90% of your success is dependent on what you do at home when there are no therapists or doctors around. Well, it seemed like the easiest way to do it was to use the alphabet. So, we drilled the alphabet daily as part of our speech routine. Once he mastered the letters, we worked on the sounds the letters made, which progressed perfectly with where he was in therapy at that time. We had us as parents, his speech therapist, his early interventionist, his classroom teachers, and for a while an occupational therapist all working on this. I do not think this is necessary for a kid to learn to read, but for Jeremy it helps to explain why he knows every letter (capital and lowercase), every sound, differing vowel sounds, etc as second nature. He knew that stuff back before he turned 3. This picture makes me miss Jennifer so much - best speech therapist in the world!
• We listen to him. Once we noticed that he was beginning to sound out his letters to form words, we began to provide more opportunities. He would spell out and read words in the bathtub, read billboards while in the car, and then we began reading "together" at bedtime by offering for him to read the first word of every sentence and the subject words - like "train", "dog", whatever the book was about. Soon, he was asking to read more words and that progressed to full sentences.
• We go at his pace. We never said, "Let's push Jeremy to read at an early age." We wanted him to love books and enjoy reading, but he set the pace himself. Now that we are reading chapter books (we are on Chapter 11 of Harry Potter - "Quidditch"), we only do about three pages a night. He wants to do the reading sometimes, we read sometimes while he lays down. Whatever. The other day he looked at me and said, "Mommy, you read fast and I read slow." And it was said with a smile; he was reprimanding me for reading too fast. We ask him if we wants to read a picture book instead, but he has so far always said no and cites the last part of the story (troll boogers, throwing the quaffle, wingardium leviosa, etc) and his need to see what happens next. I discussed it with his teacher, and she said it was great and he still gets plenty of variety since they read picture books at school.
• He is awesome. He just is. We had nothing to do with that.

My basic advice is to listen to your kid, go at his or her pace, and surround them with the opportunity to read. Kids can't create opportunity from nothing, but they can and will seize the opportunity if you provide the environment for them. There were times when I never wanted to see that Alligator at Saw Grass Road book again, let alone read it for the millionth time. I have every single Dr. Seuss book memorized. I am sitting here reciting them in my head. I can perform Skippyjon Jones word for word without opening the book. Provide the opportunity, the tools, the fun, and most importantly, the time. They will thank you for it.

Hmm, speaking of: Thanks, Mom and Dad!!