Reading Boys!

I had always heard that in kindergarten, kids start reading. Damon has known the letters and the sounds they make since he was 2, but hadn't been able to read. In September he was sent home from school with a beginning reading book and I decided it was time to teach him to read. At first when he looked at the words he wanted me to tell him what they were so he could memorize them, but I told him that he had to sound them out and I was not going to just tell him. He fought me on this processes for a while. I would tell him that we needed to read his book and he would say he didn't want to if I wasn't going to tell him the words. So I would try again the next day, same thing. After a few days I decided it was just time to do it. He whined and complained at first. I told him to sound out the word, which he could do, but when I said, "What does that sound like?" he would just say, "I don't know!" It was a little bit of a difficult process and kinda frustrating...for both of us. But after working with him for about 10 minutes, he sounded out S-A-M and when I asked him what it sounded like, he figured out that it said "Sam." After he had success with the first word, he got excited about reading the rest. So we kept going until he finished the book and he was able to sound out all the words. After reading the last word he said, "That was a good book! I want to read it again!"  Damon passes off and then get a new book almost every day. He has become a really good reader!

A couple weeks ago, I was reading a book to Monson and he started sounding out some of the small words. I was surprised, but knew I needed to encourage this. I called his preschool teacher and asked if she could send home some of their beginning reading books. A few days later she did and I sat down with him to see what he could do. To my udder shock, he sounded out the words and then read them! He read the whole book!! Monson is only 3 years old!

So now we have 2 little readers in our house. They both love getting new books and reading them everyday.

We also had a parent/teacher conference with Damon's teacher, Miss Monroe, this week and she told us he is one of the top students in the class! She is moving him up to the top reading group. They don't have separate groups for math in kindergarten, but Damon is far advanced in math. He can add, subtract and multiply. Before kindergarten started, I was practicing addition and subtraction with him and he said to me, "Mom, 4 plus 4, plus 4 is 12." I was so impressed and told him that was called multiplication and I started teaching him how to multiply. The other day, after I picked him up from school, he said, "Mom, what is 100 plus 100?" I asked him if he knew. He said 200. So we started adding 100's on our drive. Miss Monroe said that since they don't have an advanced math group in kindergarten, she is going to make some special worksheets that have multiplication and adding 100's. She also said that she would have him help the other students with learning math.

I have some smart kids!

Damon was also chosen by his teacher to be the Noble Knight of the week a couple weeks ago. Each week every teacher picks someone from their class to be the Noble Knight and it means they are a good student in class. Damon was most excited that he got to bring a toy and a book from home to show everyone in his class. (He chose his Kylo Ren that he got for his birthday and a chapter book that he calls the "Ninja Book." I don't know what the real name of it is and we haven't even read it all the way through, but he says it's his favorite.)

Miss Monroe emailed me the night before to tell me that Damon would be awarded the Noble Knight award the next morning during the Friday assembly and that I could come. I didn't tell Damon about it, or that we would be there so he was surprised to see me, Monson, Sophie and Daddy walk into the gym before the assembly started. He got to go up on stage and hold his certificate in front of the whole school. This mama was pretty proud. If he got the award at the end of the school year I would just assume that it was his "turn" to get it, but he was chosen at the beginning of the year, so that tells me that he has stood out to his teacher as a good student.