Hot Dog

Mallory when I put you to bed tonight you asked if I could read you a book.  You asked as if we haven’t read you at least one book almost every night since you were one. Lately I have been choosing books from the “Step-Into-Reading” program aimed at helping to teach kids to read.  You have been reading lots of sight words for over a year but just recently you have began to point at each word and, you either know it or you make an attempt to sound out the word.

Tonight I picked “Hot Dog” and you quickly asked if you could try and read it to me.  Always willing to let you give it a whirl, I sat down beside you and you opened to the first page.  Word by word, sentence by sentence, page by page you read the entire book to me. You stumbled on a few but with a little help you sounded each tough word out and you did it!  Two things struck me while you read; the first was your ability to read the sentences as cohesive thoughts.  In months past you have just pointed out the words you knew. word. by. word. Tonight it really flowed and it was so fun to listen to.  The second thing that caught me was your ability to comprehend what you had just read.  You laughed at the sentences, looked at the pictures and captured as a whole, what the story was about.