Reading in their own time...

   
 As a homeschooling mom one of the most memorable moments is when your child reads their first words. With three children I have now experienced that three times, and it is awesome each time and with each child. I have to say it runs a close second to their first words or first steps. Yet, it's almost more, well for me anyway. As one who loves to read and one who has spent way too much time hiding in a corner, staying up all night, or locked in a room to read, that when my children learn to read I feel like the world has just opened its doors to the them. I have always felt that once a child learns to read, there is no limit to what they can learn, and I have made sure to tell them that as well.

     Yesterday, Little Man, my youngest read his first words! We have been working on letters and letter sounds for awhile now, but not very often and not near as much as I did with my other two. With Lady Bug and Wild Thing I had a set plan and schedule and we followed the phonics and reading curriculum to the letter. But with Little Man, I have taken more of an unschooling approach to his learning so far. I never planned to unschool, but this last year has been so far from what we planned and expected that much of the year was spent just trying to get by day by day and keeping up what school work we could, when we could.

     I will say I was a bit surprised yesterday when Little Man read not only his first words but 15 words in total. He was working on writing a few letters and practicing their sounds and we ended up putting a few of those letters together on our board and that was all it took. He just took off.

    Watching him read each new word and beam with pride and joy was wonderful. He was so happy and excited that by the last word he was smiling a huge smile and bouncing up and down. We celebrated with lots of hugs, kisses, and high fives! He told me he was so happy he was reading.

    Today was even better. Little Man wanted to read his words again so we wrote them each on a 3x5 card and he practiced reading each word. After he read most of the words he turned to me and he said, "Mama, I'm reading! I'm really reading! I'm so happy I want to cry. People cry when they are really happy. Do you know that?" He then jumped up in my lap and gave me the biggest hug and I was surprised to see he really did have tears in his eyes. I knew he was excited but I never imagined learning to read was so special to him at this age. (he just turned 5)

     I am beyond thrilled for him and happy that he too is excited about reading. I think that much of the excitement for him is because he has never been pushed to read. I have not made him sit down and do school work. I have asked and only when he wanted did we do typical school work. Otherwise we have read lots of books, played games, and answered any questions he had.  He will ask me many times a day what sound different letters make, what letter starts a specific word, or how something is spelled. And he is often rattling off words that rhyme or start with the same letter. Between all this learning that was not forced but of his own interest and my not pushing him, he has been able to learn naturally.


   So once again, I have been reminded how blessed I am to homeschool my kids and spend each day with them.