All my life, I've had a great love of reading. When my workaholic parents were busy, I read. When I was bored, I read. Lonely, read. You get the idea......One of my favorite gifts as a child was my Little House on the Prarie book collection given to me by my granny and papaw. I was Seven. As soon as my party was over, I escaped to my room and read the first book of the series with gusto. In no time at all, I was swept away to the banks of Plum Creek with Laura Ingalls. I could almost imagine fishing with a twig and a piece of string....or how exciting it would be to dance to Pa's fiddle playing every night before bedtime. I could taste the sweetness of maple syrup candy made during the Christmas season by pouring a small stream of hot syrup onto cold, packed snow. As I got older, I moved onto more mature books, of course, but I always enjoy going back to my roots (lol) and re-reading my Little House books. The set is still intact, albeit a bit worn and with yellowed pages, but I wouldn't trade it for the world.
Tonight, my precious daughter, started a new chapter in her little life. She is now a reader. Now, I will admit she is a pretty sharp girl, much sharper than I ever was, but she can be stubborn. She has refused to believe it, but she has been reading for some time. This summer, we have been doing general kindergarten prep and I decided to step up her reading readiness skills. We made a game of sticking index cards on various items in our home. On the cards, I would write the name of the object and she would work on sounding them out and pronouncing the words. She has had so much fun the last two days looking for new cards. Today, we went to the library and checked out a beginning reader set. The set is Bob books, set 1, beginning readers. The set has several short stories (maybe 11?) that start super simple and slowly progress in difficulty. She took out book one and read without any problem. I was floored. She continued to book four without trouble. It was precious. Baby girl had no idea what she was doing. She looked up at me once and noticed the tears streaming down my face and said "what?" About that time, she gave me a huge smile and squealed with joy.....I'm reading!!!!
After putting my happy girl to bed, I pulled out my Little House set and carried them to her room. They are now setting proudly on her bookshelf waiting to be cherished by a new set of hands. It will happen soon enough....
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