Learning to Read

I really don't remember experiencing any emotions as my older children learned to read. My oldest really struggled, was finally diagnosed with a learning disability, received in school and out of school tutoring and now reads fluently on her own. And while it does warm my heart to see her with her nose buried in a book, there were no "wow" moments when she was younger.

My son learned to read without any fanfare. I can remember realizing that he was reading books on his own, along with realizing that he had been doing that for a while unnoticed. We were probably too focused on his older sister to notice the miracle.

Middle DD was diagnosed with amblyopia in Kindergarten and academically fell behind while trying to deal with the emotional trauma being blinded with an eye patch on a daily basis. Her year spent in Transitional First Grade cemented her knowledge of letter sounds and she learned to read easier than her older siblings. But she is not a showy person, so again, there was no fanfare.

Then along comes the youngest. My youngest has been older than her years from the moment she was born. It was a joy last year to watch her point to words she knew and say them out loud. We pointed to the screen in church and showed her how to read along. She could pick out a few words, God, was, a, ... This year her reading skills have really taken off. This past Sunday I noticed melodic noise next to me. There she was, singing along with the congregation, reading every word off the screen, fully participating in worship. Later she was thumbing through her Bible. I opened it to her current week's Bible verse and pointed to it. She started reading and I could just see the light bulb click on. How amazing is that - these random sayings that she's been learning for Sunday School for three years are all written down and she can now read them! It was a joy to witness the miracle.