See Pug Run

I am so happy.  Tonight, for the first time ever, my kindergartener read Green Eggs and Ham all by herself! She has been reading those little Scholastic Bob books since she turned 4, but those don't really count because they aren't even real books.  For example, here is the text from the first 3 pages of Sam, one of the Scholastic gems to which I am referring:  page 1, "Sam and Cat."; page 2, "Mat and Cat."; page 3, "Sam, Mat, and Cat".  See what I mean? 

Tonight, we were reviewing her homework after dinner when we realized that we had not done one of the items on her list.  I was supposed to read her a book and she was supposed to follow the words with her fingers as I read them.  She loves Dr. Seuss so she picked up Green Eggs and Ham for me to read, but before she gave it to me, she read the title.  Then she read the author and next thing you know, she was reading the whole book.  I wish I could capture the look on her face when she realized what she was doing.  She was beaming, and I guess I was, too.

Every time our children hit a milestone, it brings back memories of my own childhood. The first book I ever read was called Pug.  I still remember the first few pages of that book, probably because it is so similar to the Scholastic gems I was just talking about--Pug.  See Pug Run.  Go, Pug. Go.  Run, Pug. Run.  I guess we all have to start somewhere.  

I wish all kids had a chance to get excited about books early in their academic lives.  I was lucky to have two people in my house who were avid readers: my grandmother and my dad.  I have this vivid memory of my grandmother sitting under a tree reading her favorite book to me. I am supposed to be playing outdoors with my little neighborhood friends, but instead I am sitting right in front of her fascinated by her story.  She looks so cute with her glasses on and that look of total concentration on her face.  She is reading The Three Musketeers. That is such a happy memory for me.   

My dad also loves books.  He has a special affinity for westerns.  We had many, many books and many, many bookshelves in our house growing up.  We didn't have children's books, but we had two encyclopedias - Childcraft and Brittanica, six huge dictionaries where you could look up any word in 10 different languages, many religious books (my dad was educated in a seminary), many science fiction books, including a large collection of Isaac Asimov's, many books on math and physics, and hundreds of other books all over our house. We, kids, all loved the Childcraft Encyclopedia and we all read it from cover to cover by the time we were in fourth grade.  I still love those books.  My bookshelves don't look right if I don't have a set of Childcraft Encyclopedias on it.  Those books must mean a lot to my siblings, too, because at least two of them also have a set in their house for their kids. 

I was lucky, too, that my first grade teacher had a passion for books and she shared it with her students.  She had a loft in her room decorated like a tree house.  We all loved climbing up into that tree house to read.  I wonder how many of those 6 and 7 year-olds are still readers today because of that tree house?

Some people say that they associate whole periods of their lives with certain music.  They hear a song and all these memories flood back.  Books do that for me.  I hope they do that for my children some day, too.

TTYL.