reading

I've always kinda discouraged my kids on the Harry Potter craze. It's never been a big deal, really. It wasn't from a 'oh my, it's too evil' point of view but generally I had no interest in sharing it with my kids.

Well, someone, I think maybe the school librarian, recommended the series to Jen so she's reading them starting with the first book. She's 18 so it's her choice, yk? She hasn't mentioned what she thinks of yet. She just tossed out a remark that she was going to read them all and now the book is sitting on the dining table.

Speaking of reading...I had a really great conversation with Jared yesterday. We had been reading (rather I'd been reading to him) a book about a boy who was struggling on his basketball team and being picked on so he determined to practice and improve his skills until, in the end, he was able to make the winning shot. If you go back and read this post from last year, you'll get a peek into the struggles that Jared has had to deal with. Learning to read has just been the biggest challenge for him. He is now in 5th grade but at a 2nd grade reading level. He has always refused to read to me claiming that he can not read. I knew he could read some because I'd catch him reading a sign here or there but still he refused to ever read to me. But he is *finally* starting to get it! YAY! I give alot of the credit to two things in the past year. His special ed teacher has had him listening to/reading along chapter books on tape. Just the constant practice of having to follow the story in the book has had marked results for him. And second, I just cannot say enough about what TaeKwonDo has done for this child. It's given him the self-confidence he needed so desperately. It's helped him improve his preserverance. It's improved his life skills dramatically. Both of these boys are small for their age so knowing how to defend themselves is wonderful for them. However, the therapy benefits that have made such a difference in Jared's life is worth every penny I have spent, every hour I have sat and waited for class, every mile driven, and every sore neck/back from sitting on the gym bleachers for hours during testing. Oh, and don't forget the stress of Mr Penny Pincher complaining about the costs. lol

Anyway, back to the conversion I had with Jared yesterday...this book gave us an opportunity to discuss facing and perservering thru challenges vs giving it all up. He was just 'ready' for it, yk? He had some wonderful insights yesterday on overcoming the struggles to reach a goal. We'll get thru this. I have hope that he'll soon feel comfortable reading to me. I have hope that someday he'll catch up to his grade level in reading. He was actually reading a few simple sentences yesterday and I so look forward to listening to him read a chapter book to me. The reward, the feeling of winning, after all the struggles we've been thru together will be out of this world. We are going to get there. We will. It just takes time and continuing what is proving to be *his success plan.