She Reads

The other day, my daughter told me that she wants to learn how to read.  I heard somewhere that once a child starts putting bodies on their drawings of people (as opposed to just drawing legs off the head), they are ready to read.  Sure enough, she has been drawing bodies and when I tested her on phonics sounds through the alphabet, she got most of them.  Out came our beloved Bob Books and she quickly picked up books 1 and 2.  Now, she's like Helen Keller when she made the connection at the water.  She is constantly pointing out words to me and asking what they are.  Sometimes I tell her.  Sometimes I have her sound them out.

I expect she'll catch on quickly to reading and we can start first grade next year with her reading already.  Her older brother has difficulties reading and possibly some mild dyslexia and even though he is in 2nd grade, I still have to read many things out to him.  We started a reading chart and he has been willingly reading more and more books.  He already filled his October chart!  His books are Kindergarten/First Grade level books, but he's reading.  I'm not worried.  He'll pick it up over time.  I'd rather cultivate a love of reading and desire to read and good reading comprehension than a child who can read at or above their level.