Then He Started Reading Voluntarily

Before K Man started Kindergarten, he loved having my husband or I read to him. His favorite book by far was Green Eggs and Ham. There was a time that I pretty much had that book memorized, and you know it is something like 65 pages long...just a few words on each page...but still, sixty-five pages of a children's book. We could never read it just once either. It had to be at least twice.

I will not eat them on a train or in a house or in the rain. Or something like that. These days, getting K Man to read is a lot like being Sam I Am trying to convince him to try green eggs and ham. Since starting Kindergarten four years ago, when he was required to start to learn to read himself, he has become much less fond of reading. He seldom even asked us to read to him.

I probably should have seen the flags right away. It's strange for a child who loves books so much to suddenly recoil at the thought of them. But no, I just thought he was too active to sit long enough for a book. I thought it was normal letter-reversals. I remember asking everyone if it was weird that he still confused b's and d's and 2's and 5's and several other letters and numbers even when he was near the end of 1st grade. Everyone said it was still normal, but something still was tugging at my mind. It didn't seem right. So, we had him tested before the start of second grade.

Now here we sit, a little more than one year later. He is making progress in some areas and not in others. Spelling is still a nightmare. His reading, however, continues to improve.

Last weekend, he received his Bible from our church. (All third graders receive either a children's Bible or a traditional Bible from our church.) I chose the traditional Bible for K Man, even with his reading difficulties. He was proud to receive it, I could tell.

Then he started reading it, voluntarily. I'm not sure if you know this, but the Bible is not exactly easy reading, especially for a kid who has difficulties with reading. I asked him about the book and he told me he read about "this lady who wasn't supposed to eat some fruit but she did..."

A see a glimmer of hope.