Believe it or not, O Reader,there is a method to my madness. When it comes to posting in this blog, I Have A Plan. And it involves a kind of variety (the only variety that I, as sole contributor, can make), a balance, a careful consideration of what to post next and what was posted before, and, in all honesty, how often each of my children makes an appearance here.
This week is no exception. I Have A Plan, and this involves some updates on my children, and some News about our next trip, and some News about that News. Moreover, I am Keenly Aware that I just posted two (2) adorable and somewhat surprising photos of my daughter here Only Yesterday, that I have Several photos involving Everett waiting to be posted and Several stories involving William that are languishing in my memory.
However, We Have Had A Development, and so all plans must wait, all photos remain in Picasa, all memories languish.
The Development is this: Emma Grace can read.
She brought home a small and slender paperback book this afternoon. It is, in all, perhaps six or eight pages long; each page bears a sentence that is no longer than five words. But it is a book, and Emma Grace did, indeed, read it.
The book is called Dot, and it is the tale (if one can call it a “tale,” or even a “story,” as it is Decidedly Lacking in plot) of a girl named Dot who has a hat. She also has (and this is really only marginally interesting but it is one of the major developments of the book) a cat who has a hat, and also a dog. But the dog chews on his hat, and we learn of this catastrophe with this pithy sentence: “Dog has a rag hat,” a line of prose accompanied by a drawing of the dog chewing on his hat. And then: “Dog is sad.”
All’s well that ends well, though, I am glad to say. For in the next photo, Dog is wearing his rag hat and seems perfectly contented.
But that is not the point of this post. The point of this post is that Emma Grace Can Read, that she recognized all the letters in this book, and sounded out the words, and figured it out herself.
Despite the Great Pleasure I take in reading, despite the fact that I think reading is one of the most important skills one can have, I have never been a “push your child to read” kind of mom. I taught both of the boys to read; I began giving Emma Grace some reading lessons last summer. But I have had one too many students who has learned to hate learning because of pressure; I have felt competition among parents one too many times to want to be aggressive in teaching my child to read; I want my children to learn to read and to love to read and to do so In Due Time.
Apparently it is Due Time for Emma Grace who, after reading Dot this evening, went on to read three other books of similar literary quality. She read them all aloud to me and then, when her dad came home, read one of them aloud to him. Bill and I praised her, her brothers praised her, and Emma Grace was, very rightfully, Pleased.
