Benjamin is learning to read. This brings up a lot of feelings and responses in me. I guess I'll start with a story:
In the photos posted here, I have created a "print rich" environment - tagged various items around the house with the corresponding word. I know he's not going to read "sculpture" in one of his kindergarten books, but it is fun to engage with him in spelling complex new words, sounding out simple ones, and discovering the ridiculous number of inconsistencies in the English language.
On a whim one day while Benjamin was at school, I put up all the words. When he came home, he immediately noticed and asked, "Mama, what is that word for?"
"That says 'garage.' Why do you think that is on this door?"
"Because that's the door to the garage!" He then ran up the stairs and spied "wall."
"Mama, what's that one?"
"Wall."
After the second example he thoroughly understood that some new adventure was afoot. His head spun around until he discovered "painting" and "chair."
"Are there more, Mama?"
"Yep! They're all over the house. Go find them."
He took off on a run. A squeal of delight or a belly laugh accompanied each discovery. I was dealing with laundry when I heard him sounding out "art" on his own.
"A-a-a-a-a-a-a rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr t-t-t-t-t. Aaaarrr-ttttt. Aaarrt. Art. ART! MAMA! I JUST READ ART!!!"
I had a moment, I must admit. There's just something so exciting about witnessing the joy of learning. It's been nearly two weeks, and the words are still up. I plan to leave them up until we grow tired of them, or they are learned.
Now here's the WHY behind my little adventure. One of the requirements at Benjamin's school is that they learn 12 sight words in three weeks. Sight words are the most frequently used words in the English language - words that make up some 90% of written language - this, that, we, I, see, and, the, on, of, etc. They are so frequent that we have figured out that if kids can straight up memorize them, they will read more fluently and not be tripped up so often.
And it's true. I can't tell you how often Benjamin would keep trying to sound out "the" no matter how often it showed up on a page. Knowing these words makes a world of difference.
However...
It is not developmentally appropriate to expect that all kids will be reading well by the end of kindergarten. According to physical and mental markers, some kids will learn to read in first or second grade - that would not necessarily indicate that they are "slow." Of course, in our educational system they will be behind, and that's sad.
For us, the pace of sight words is a bit of a challenge. While he has learned 20 of the 24 so far, a couple of the ones he still misses are in the first set so as far as the teacher is concerned, he's behind. And we just got another set of 12 this week. I feel the pressure - I hope he doesn't. I am certainly not pressuring him.
This is the reason for the words in our house. He needed to spend some time getting excited over things that have meaning for him - seeing an object that he uses every day and learning its corresponding word. And it worked. He may not know all his sight words yet, but he is excited about words.
In other, related, news: This is the boy who listens to me read C.S. Lewis. Yes - I have been excitedly awaiting the day when I could begin sharing works of literature with him, and he's finally old enough. We recently read The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe and are now one chapter into The Horse and his Boy.
The thing is - he's a big ideas kid. And I'm a big ideas mama. The nuts and bolts are valuable insofar as they are used for a purpose - to communicate, to create, to unlock a mystery, to understand the make-up of something. I think that if his mind is embracing ideas and imagining possibilities, he will eventually see the reason for learning the tools and will be ready to learn them. In fact, he is learning them - just not at the pace being set for him at his school.
Parent-teacher conferences are next week, so it will be interesting to hear the teacher's perspective. In the meantime, we spin ourselves around in wonder at the ideas that can be discovered through words.