Words: A Proud Next Step
0I had a moment tonight with my son that I am quite proud of. There are many things that make us proud parents…but there are some things that…oh you are waiting for the actual point of pride here huh. Well here was my proud tweet about it.
My son read for the first time ever…like FOR REAL reading words while he has been at my house! After all isn’t reading the next step in learning language? We actually had fun reading through words of almost all of the alphabet. The book we were using? Winnie-the-Pooh’s ABC. It’s actually a really good book with visualizations of the uppercase and lowercase letters (or as we call them in my house Big & Little). The book has the letter, a cool picture and then an associated word. What I like most about the book, is that the pictures give some subtle hints at what the word might be…but doesn’t actually show a picture of it. For instance if A was for “apple”, the picture wouldn’t be a big red apple…it would be a tree with an apple hanging from it. I added the pic of the book below and if you want to check it out on Amazon for yourself, click on the picture and it will open it up in a new tab for you!
The best line of the enter night was when we were trying to sound out the word “jump”. First we had a little playful, laughing argument about whether or not the “j” was actually a “j” or not. He said “i”…I said “j”. We eventually got it straightened out after some tickling from both sides. I will say that he was a trooper tonight. By the time we got to “J”, he had already sounded out all of the words from A-H with some help on “I” because the word “island” was a bit much after having completed the others. So by the time we got to “J” he was starting to lose focus. Here’s kind of how it went.
Me: What does the “J” sound like? Him: “Juh” Me: Awesome! What about the “U”? Him: *quizzical face* “Uh?” Me: Uh huh…what about the “M”? Him: “Mmmmmmmmmm” Me: And the “P”? Him: Puh-puh-puh… *giggle* Me: Hah…no it’s just one “puh” (by now he’s laughing really hard..and repeating “puh puh puh”) Me: Alright sound it out… Him: “Juh-Umm-Puh-Puh-Puh” Me: Juh-um-puh-puh? At this point he starts rolling! He’s laughing soooo hard about how funny it sounds. Me: Does this mean you “Juh-um-puh-puh” up and down? Him: *giggle* yesssss……… By the end he finally got it and exclaimed a big “OHHHHH!!!! JUMP DADDY!!!”
That’s when it hit me for real…my son was finally understanding words and how to put them all together. Before he would be extremely uninterested and blow off anything that looked like letters to look at the pictures when I read to him. But tonight it was different. He sat there intently trying SO hard to try and sound out the letters. My son’s favorite reward system by far…not candy…not toys…but for me to be loud and proud of him. High Fives…dancing…stealing a chorus from queen while singing:
“We are the champions my friends…we will keep reading to the end…we are the champions…we are the champions…no time for pictures cause we are the readers!!!”
This is my LOUD and PROUD moment for my son and one that I hope I never forget or lose memory of. Earlier today, we sat down and looked at some pictures from when he was born and he started laughing at his naked “bottom” and unmentionables (which actually spawned into another fit of laughing from my son). We both watched a movie from when I would sing to him or fall asleep with him…and he would keep asking for more and more. As we were looking at those pictures and with the onset of him reading tonight and understanding how to read…I got a bit emotional just because he has come so far. He’s the biggest four year old I know at just over 3ft tall (exactly half my height – at 4!)(he was 3ft at 3yrs old!), size 12 boys shoe, size 5T clothes – and growing out of everything because he is getting so tall. Watching videos and pictures over the years and then experiencing his next step made this the highlight of our time the past three weeks he has been at “Daddy’s House”.
I am so proud!
About Michael Shindle
Lover of technology, startups, entrepreneurs, anything new and outrageous. I am always interested in the connection of science and art and how it plays in the world as well as the mesh of business and art and the balance you have to find to actually succeed. I am a proud father and am always surprised every day by his passion to find new things in the world that I have seemingly forgotten. He keeps me young!
