Need to share a small reading victory

[cajunrose]

My dd7 has struggled so much with reading. She has had issues with reading words (fluency mostly) and comprehension because of it and we are working on it. She has made such huge strides in the last few months. I have tried to let it take it's natural course but it's so hard. She is starting to feel behind. She hears about books her friends are reading..some of them (not so nicely) points out how she is reading 'baby' books. She's feeling the pressure...it's hard for a mommy to see.

 

I have gotten her a few different 'chapter' book series to try to find SOMETHING that grabs her attention and gets her to want to read more than her required one chapter a day. All very very easy series (Mercy Watson books, Norton books, etc) but still none grabbed her.

 

I got her a couple of the Breyer Stablemates books. She picked up Penny: http://www.amazon.com/Penny-Stablemates-Jane-Gerver/dp/0439722357/ref=sr_1_8?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1288668260&sr=1-8 tonight for the first time. She read one chapter and I figured she was done. She asked me if she could read one more. Of course you can! She read one more. Before I knew it, she read the whole book. 5 chapters! Now mind you, the chapters are very very very short...just a 1 or 2 sentences on a page...1 paragraph at most...but she WANTED to read them. She wanted to find out what happened.

 

I got tears in my eyes. I was thrilled for her. I hope it continues. I told her that as long as she was reading, I would continue to buy her books. I think there is enough in this series to get her to the 'next' level of chapter book.

 

I knew you guys would understand more than anybody else would.

 

Thanks for letting me share!

[johnandtinagilbert]

YEA!!!! I know where you are and when they find that spot and start building confidence the world is an open book! :grouphug::party:

[Miss Sherry]

You may want to let her do some reading practice at http://www.starfall.com

[MamaSheep]

:party:

[ElizabethB]

:party:

 

Those were some of the first non-fiction books my daughter liked, too!

 

If she likes other animal books, I have recommendations!!

 

There is also a horse book thread somewhere if all she likes is horses.

[boscopup]

That's awesome! My son has been reading well for a couple years now, but still won't do more than one chapter of a book at a time. I need to find something that interests him like that!

[lionfamily1999]

Woohoo!

:hurray:

Congratulations to you both :D

:grouphug:

[Aludlam]

Lady .... that's no small victory. That's a snowball that will start the avalanche. Way to GO!

[cajunrose]

I knew you guys would understand! Apparently, it didn't end there. I guess she took a bunch of books to bed with her last night and read them all before she went to sleep. Not sure what books even...but for her to bring a stack of books to bed with her to read is HUGE. I think that the 'reading for pleasure' doors may have opened for her. I hope this lasts!

[lionfamily1999]

Lady .... that's no small victory. That's a snowball that will start the avalanche. Way to GO!

I like the way you put that!

ETA, this was meant for Stephenie:

 

Here here! or is it Hear Hear!

Hip Hip Hooray!

[Hedgehog]

That's wonderful! I remember my now 11yo at 7.. still struggling with reading. Bless her heart, she used to try so hard to understand, but there were things that just weren't going in. Suddenly, not long after her 7th birthday, something must have clicked, because she progressed REALLY fast in a matter of weeks and just like that, she could read excellently.

 

But the pressure on them totally sucks. I read recently that in the last days of the former (labour/socialist) government here in the UK, the Dept. of Education was trying to get into the National Curriculum a requirement for all children to be reading well by the time they were 6. Can you imagine how this would have worked out in a classroom, with all the peer pressure as well?