Wednesday, October 23, 2013

We've come so far!

It was not long ago, about a year, that I worried almost daily about Ryan and his reading. He loved being read to, he tried very hard to read himself, but good golly, it was a struggle.  It was frustrating for both of us, I couldn't understand how he did not know that "train" we had just sounded out was the same "train" one line down, as we sounded it out all over again. And then to have his brother, reading everything in sight, with ease, oh my his poor little heart. This time in our lives was very exhausting.  It was really hard on his self esteem and it was really worrisome to me.

At some point last year Evan needed a little extra help with hockey and we put him in private lessons.  He needed some one on one time to figure out what he was supposed to be doing in practice.  During the 45 minutes Evan was on the ice, Ryan and I were given private time to work on his reading.  Seriously, best $40 a week ever spent!!!! Evan's skating and focus was 100% improved, and Ryan was FINALLY able to make a breakthrough with his reading.  Without Evan correcting him from the other room, it was all Ryan and he HAD to figure it out. I admit it was a good thing we were doing this in an ice arena because some days I had trouble keeping my cool, but by the end of five or six lessons, I could see a dramatic improvement.

We've had another MAJOR breakthrough!

Yesterday Ryan started reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, and tonight he finished it. That is 309 pages in two days!!!  THREE HUNDRED AND NINE!!!! This kid, who last year could barely read nine words in two days just read three hundred and nine pages in two days.  He was SO proud of himself.  I am pretty proud too...

..oh and Evan, he's on page 380 in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy.