Learning to Read

I bought this book from 1957 called Bucky's Friends for my son Shea. I bought it quite some time ago, with the intention of giving it to him when he learned to read. It is like a boy's version of a Dick and Jane-style book. Very cute and vintage. My daughter loved to read us Dick and Jane when she first learned to read, so I thought he might to.

He read it to us the other night.

Sometime over the last couple of months, while I was assuming he was playing at the sand table and building with blocks when I left him at his Kindergarten, he went and learned to read.

I don't know why this surprises me so much - I mean, the boy is smart. He is, quite truthfully, smarter than I ever give him credit for. He's very laid-back. Laid-back to the point where you think he's not paying any attention, not taking anything in, but he is. He's just not sitting "criss-cross-applesauce" with his hands folded in his lap while he's doing it.

Anyway, I am an avid reader, and I desperately want my kids to be too. That's not such a terrible desire is it? That said, I really did not care if he learned to read in Kindergarten. I mean, he's 5, a Fall baby who is one of the youngest in his class, and he is in a Full-Day Kindergarten, which was quite an adjustment for him. (And me. I like having him around. He's lovely company.) So we have been dealing with the teacher's concerns this past Fall about his attention span and focus. My instinct is listed above: he's 5, a Fall baby and in Full-Day Kindergarten. Our family doctor said the same thing. (I love it when my doctor feels the same way I do!) And he's following his sister, who was with this teacher last year, and who was one of the oldest in her class, and could sit "criss-cross-applesauce" with her hands in her lap all day if need be. (I keep repeating the "criss-cross" thing not because I actually talk that way, but because I can't get the phrase out of my head right now and it's driving me nuts).

But, here my sweet boy has learned to read at a younger age than his sister even, and while he was laying on the carpet, "not focussing". Hah!

Shea is a Mama's Boy. Has been from day one, and will be forever, I am sure. We just like hanging out together. My Mama Bear insticts are stronger for him than for my other two kids. I wonder about that often. He is the middle child, which, having grown up in a household where the "middle child" was right out of a stereotypical, worst-case scenario, I really feel strongly about this middle child succeeding in every way. It makes me ache when things aren't going perfectly. I think that's why I am always ready to leap to his defense. He's only one school year behind his Big Sister, who is a completely different kind of learner than he is. I hate that the reality of school is that they will be compared. I mistakenly thought that because they are of different sexes, there was no comparison. But it doesn't work that way, I am learning. The thing is, he's smart, just not interested in sitting at a desk at this time in his life. Who can blame him?

I plan to ramble on about these thought as time passes. Perhaps I am over-thinking it all? As a Mama Bear, it's what I do. In the meantime, he is reading! To me! And enjoying it!

I'm so proud of you, Shea-boy!