WOW

I am sooooo proud of TJ! He is reading! Really reading!! Woohoo!! So some years back, I bought Bob books and another set of beginning readers for the kids in my class. We weren't supplied with much leveled books back then. Anyway, I wasn't too crazy about the Bob books. I thought they were too "difficult" to be beginner books. I wanted even simpler books with maybe only 3-4 words per page. So they were set aside. When TJ started recognizing his letters and sounds, I took another look the Bob books and still didn't like them. I thought they were way too hard for TJ as a true beginning reader. I didn't want to frustrate him before he actually got started. He did "read" the other set I bought. It was a repetitive book that was conducive to figuring out words. For example the sentence would usually be the same and only one word would be different, like a color. I like white ice cream. I like green ice cream. So on and so forth. TJ wouldn't really be reading reading but he thought he was and it encouraged using picture clues - pre-reading skills.

Anyway, the Bob books have been put on the shelf for ages. I keep reading about moms raving about Bob books and I just think, "oh, they are not so great." Well, I don't know what possessed me to pull out the Bob books last night. I knew I was wondering again what was so great about these books that mom keep raving about and recommending them. But for whatever reason I did, I noticed something. I noticed that the books were numbered. Huh? I never noticed that before. Then it hit me. Perhaps the books I first looked at were at the end of the series. There's a bunch of books in the Bob books box. Perhaps that's why the books seemed so difficult to me and so non-beginner like. Duh! I found Book 1 - Mat. I quickly browsed through the book and thought that TJ might be able to read the book. So I called TJ over to read - in replacement of me doing his bedtime reading. TJ read the whole book without too much hesitation. In fact, he was able to read it fluently enough that he understood that the story was funny. That was the best part! Wow, just wow!!! I was sooo proud of TJ.

This morning, TJ pulled out the Bob books so he could read again. TJ had such a positive experience that he wanted to repeat it!! Woohoo!! We didn't really get to it b/c of a phone call and then some timeouts that were needed. TJ kind of lost interest after that. We read again later after dinner. TJ read books 1 - 3 this time. Each book built upon the previous and was a little longer each time around. Book 2 - Sam was relatively easy. For some reason, TJ was having trouble with the word 'a.' He kept thinking it was the letter p. TJ was also having a little bit of trouble with his b/d. We will have to work on that. Book 3 - Dot did leave TJ a little frustrated. He wanted to stop. But mean mommy that I am, didn't let him. I supposed maybe I could have, but his frustration was at something silly. Something I thought he should have gotten. I know when he finished the book, he was very happy about it. So I'm glad I pushed through this time. I won't always.

I browsed the rest of the Bob books in the box and I think that TJ will be able to read them all without too much problems. Wow! I just keep thinking Wow! TJ reading already. Really reading. I am not pushing him. If I was, we would have done this ages ago. So obviously I'm not. I am just so proud of TJ!! Woohoo! My little reader at age 4!!