The Reader

Did you know that Abby can read? Yep, she can - she proved it today when she got home from school. Abby has always enjoyed books, and I've kept an eagle eye out for her emerging literacy practices (how do you like that educational jargon?) I've noticed lately that she is making sure to point out the title before we open the book to read, and even better, she is running her little finger across the words as she tells me the story. She is using picture cues to remember what we've read in familiar books, and proudly exclaiming, "The End!" when we reach the finish. Yes, Abby is exhibiting some wonderful skills when it comes to getting ready to read, but today she topped them all.

As normal, after I got her off the bus and in the house, I opened her backpack and started going through her papers. That's when I saw this paper. Once I got past her name, beautifully printed at the top of the paper, I noticed the words on the page, particularly, the one word that is outlined in red - Abby's first "red word" - the. Now, even though I teach upper grades, I do know what red words are. Those are the lovely words in our mutt of a language that kids need to memorize, because there is no way to figure them out phonetically. So, as soon as I saw that "the" outlined in red, I knew exactly what it meant - Abby was learning her first word. I immediately called her over so she could read the word to me. I pointed to the word and asked her, "Abby, what does this say?" She began talking about the pictures she saw, but once I redirected her to the word she very carefully put her tongue to her teeth and and pronounced, "th-ah". I squealed so loudly that Abby jumped and Bruiser began to howl. We finished working our way through the rest of the paper. She read the red word and I followed with the rest of the sentence - we read the paper together. I think I'm still glowing.

When Jason got home Abby read the paper with him as well, and then made the rounds for some congratulations and hugs. This is something that is huge to us - what a wonderful world awaits our little girl, and it is all starting with one small word, like one giant step forward. So, there you have it - Abby is a reader, no one will convince me otherwise.

Even when Abby was two she could
easily become engrossed in a book -
understandable, this is a pretty good one.