Unfortunately, The Boy's class was having a Halloween party and the Boy had lost all Halloween privileges. I suspected there was going to be a problem when he found out this little tidbit. But to my surprise, he took it very well. As in he accepted that he had done many many many many things wrong and it was his consequence.
I still wanted to reward him for being good lately. I decided to take him to get a library card. He's been doing an excellent job with his beginning sounds. I told him because of that, I thought he was going to be reading soon and I wanted him to be able to read a lot. He was nervous about it.
When we got up to the counter, I went blank at his age so I asked him how old he was. At our library, you have to be at least 7 to get a card. He told me he was 7. So I told the librarian. As I was filling out the form, I thought something wasn't right but it didn't sink in. I was too worried about the time and when I had to pick CDQ up. The librarian asked if he was 7 again and I said "yup!" still not thinking. She issued him a card. (This whole sequence will make sense a little later)
I showed him all the books that were available to him. He walked from row to row, touching the books and telling me to look at this one or that one. Then he asked how many he could check out. I told him 3. He went at it.
Some books I had to tell him he was going to have to work up to but he seemed to like that challenge. This is huge because this is a boy who could not identify letters that weren't in his name when I started with him. He's a first grader. He didn't want to do ANYTHING. He was too scared because he wasn't confident enough that he knew anything.
After making his selections, he took his books and card up to the desk and very matter of factly put them on the counter like he had been doing it for ages. I could tell he felt like such a big boy.
Later, at dinner, we were all talking about something that escapes me right now (senior moment) and the kids ages came up. That's when I realized the boy is actually 6, not 7 yet. How embarrassing. When I asked him why he said he was 7, he said he forgot and thought he was 7. lol I think maybe the librarian let him slide since his birthday is in 2 weeks. That or she saw my face, because she had asked me what was wrong when I first came in. But maybe next post, I'll address that.
At any rate, I am so proud of the boy and I am hoping the best for him and reading. It's the only thing (at least it seems) that I have been able to instill in all of them. I've been collecting children's books for as long as I can remember. They love to read and I've been reading to them.
3 comments:
It is so exciting when they start reading. I love to read so it's something I strongly encouraged. Then the inflection started and I was over the moon. Kudos for the library card.
How cool. Kids books and the library are so fun. My son just read his very first book the other night! All on his own! I was so excited. My other son is like yours, just working on his beginning sounds (he is six, too). Which is just as cool cause then I can be there from the beginning!
Mine all love to read too. I almost always have a book in front of my nose. We all are flopped around in various places reading. It is nice. Now that I think about it, we spent about an hour today at the library with the boys getting books while I did some homework.
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