Reading Machines

I guess they are pretty smart little cookies. I never really doubted it, but in fear of being like one of those 'Toddlers in Tiaras' type of moms I just always hope that all of our kids will be average (maybe slightly above) in school. The biggest thing for me is being a good kid, not a bully to their peers, not a smart ass to the teachers, just a nice person. I guess you can say that I have been saving all of my mommy-crazy for their sports activities :)

This month I was reminded that the average expectation is not a good fit. Not only is it not my style, it is just not really suitable for these kids. Somehow they are already showing that they are very smart and they love to read! *bragging warning* Dylan was once again bumped to the next level of books in his classroom. He was one of only 2 kids on the previous level, and now is the only one at this new level of reading. His brain is like a sponge these days, and he grabs any book laying around the house and quickly reads as much as he can. Today I asked the kids to read a book while I made lunch, and when I checked on them he was reading a 30 page Disney Princess book to Olivia. She was LOVING every minute.




As for Olivia, I decided that she is ready to start some basic sight words. We have been working on some common basic words: and, on, off, I, a, to, you, in, we, at, the, is, and the -at family of words. I decided to try her out on the first set of Bob Books (which Dylan didn't really get into until he was closer to 5), and she successfully read her first two books last week.



To foster this excitement and to roll with their reading momentum, we have been (for about 3 weeks) going to the public library once a week and checking out 7-10 new books. They just can't get enough of the new material. I feel a little guilty that they had never been to a public library until this month, but there is no looking back now...they are reading machines.