Ben art

Construction worker

The Boy Who Learned to Read (en espanol, hombre!)

Ben has struggled a lot this fall as he has entered into kindergarten. The first couple of months he came home (after being *very* good at school) and became a violent mess of a boy. We (the parents) were just as emotionally tired from the aftershocks.

In San Francisco, homework is required by the district, even in kindergarten. At first, Ben was excited to do it each week. And then he decided that if he didn't know what to do right away, he didn't want to do it. In fact, he couldn't do it, he would say. Attempts to practice sounding out words would result in an emphatic "But I can't read!" repeated despite gentle encouragement that of course he couldn't read, he was only five afterall!

Then, two weeks after Thanksgiving break = breakthrough. Something clicked mentally or socially or both, and life wasn't quite so hard, and homework practice was easier. His teacher suggested trying to get him to focus on syllables instead of just letters, and he was actually able to write some on his own.

Today, after doing quite a bit of writing in his homework, Ben again said he couldn't read. "Yes you can!" I said. "You just sounded out all those syllables for writing, that's the same for reading." Ben ran to some flash cards that had caused so much angst weeks before and dutifully practiced sounded out the number words (en espanol, of course). He got a few right away, struggled with many, and got many more with help.

And Ben decided he *could* read. We sat down on the couch to read books and Ben said instead of a book he wanted me to tell him a "story about the boy who learned how to read". And so today is the day that Ben started reading. :)

Ben's dogsledding picture