On learning to read

I do not remember when in school I first learned to read.  Perhaps we started some basic reading in kindergarten, but I think it was more likely in 1st grade that I was reading "The dog runs. The cat sits. The bunny hops."  You get the idea.  Very short and also repetitive sentences. Yet, here I am helping my kindergartner read already.

Before I get into the process of learning to read, I want to digress for a moment and comment on the fact that it seems school these days is at least a grade ahead of what it was like for me.  Given my recollection that I likely didn't really start reading until 1st grade, yet Evan is being taught in kindergarten, there are also some notable differences about his kindergarten class compared to mine.

First of all, my kindergarten classroom had lots of play areas.  There was a play kitchen/home area.  There was an area with very large blocks for building.  There was even a slide (that may have been fairly unique, but it was awesome nonetheless).  Then we had a carpet area for sharing and reading stories. And then there was a separate tile floor area that had round little tables for centers.  There was even a no bake oven so that when it was your birthday you could make a little cake.  That was da-bomb!

In Evan's kindergarten classroom, there are mostly the little round tables, but there is a small carpet area in the front of the room as well.  Plus, there are a few computers.  That is definitely a new feature, given when I was in elementary school we had "computer lab" as one of our special classes, but let me tell you, those computers were the ancient kind complete with green screens only.  And honestly, I don't think we started going to computer lab in kindergarten.  Probably didn't start that until 1st grade or later.

Anyway, the lack of play stations bothered me, as I remember kindergarten as a very fun time.  Now I realize that Evan's pre-K experience (which the room had play stations) may have really been more like my kindergarten experience.  Guess we are expecting our children to learn things earlier than was expected of me.

Speaking of early, Evan is one of the youngest in his class, but yet he is definitely excelling at school.  We had our first parent-teacher conferences last week and I was so delighted (but also a bit surprised) that Evan is doing so well academically, he has tested out of a mid-year assessment!  He has been scoring 100% on his assessments and tests, and well above the benchmarks.  It made me so proud to hear this about him.  And while I've been working with him on his reading, it shows.

Evan is really doing quite well at reading.  It seems to be coming very naturally to him.  He uses the picture clues, but also has a really good understanding of phonics and sounds words out.  Really, he is best at combining the picture clues and the first letter of the word to figure it out.  That combination allows him to figure out a lot of sometimes bigger and more complex words without even sounding them fully out.  Sometimes, though, this backfires.  One example last week was the word "grass", where he read it as "ground", given the picture clue and the first few letters are the same between the two words.  But, after I helped him sound out the rest of the letters, he realized the correct word and then in future times when we read that page, you could hear him sounding it out a bit as he said it, but he would get it right.

When he does have to take some time to figure out a new word on his own, his eyes light up and he beams with pride when he figures it out.  I can't help but kiss and hug him when that happens as I'm so proud of him.  I'm starting to try to help him recognize sounds that letters make when they are together.  After all, I think I'm realizing a lot of learning to read is recognition of sounds upon seeing them.  In fact, there are a lot of "sight words" (words that are commonly used, and most of which don't follow exact phonetical spellings) we are supposed to work on with Evan and then once he essentially memorizes these his teacher said he'll read a lot faster.  Anyway, I can already hear that Evan is recognizing "sh" and "th" and even tonight "er" sounds.  It is all really so impressive to me.

His teacher said that he's really good at spelling and also has really good handwriting.  I had not realized his handwriting was good, but then again, I don't see other kindergartners handwriting to compare.  However, I did realize that it has REALLY improved since last year in pre-K (when he essentially was just learning how to write letters at all).  The teacher said kids learn spelling by learning the first letter, then the last letter, and then the hardest part and last part is learning to fill in the letters in the middle (most of which are vowels).  I can see that also in how Evan is learning to read...sound out first letter and then try to figure out the word.  Then if that doesn't work, maybe look at the last letter or other letters in the word.

I have to admit that it is so nice that Evan's learning to read so well so far.  Given Evan's tendency to get frustrated easily, I am glad he's been able to work on his reading without really getting frustrated. There have been a few times that he sees a big word and says he can't figure it out before he's even tried, but then once we break it down into smaller words and sounds and he figures it out before I've fully helped him put it all together, that sparkle in his eye tells me that he's super happy he figured it out (mostly) on his own.  He's sure proud of himself and I am equally proud of him.  My boy is learning to read!