We have always surrounded our kids with books. I read a bit. They know me at the library. And by always keeping Corbin and Eliza supplied with stories, we've surrounded them with something else, too: Words.
This is a Corbin post. Though Eliza is starting out on this journey herself.
Any time Corbin has a book in front of him, we call it reading. Some people may say that just looking at a book doesn't actually qualify as reading. I disagree. Reading is interacting with text or story. Corbin has read the pictures of his books since he could hold them. His is interacting with the story through its pictures. With wordless picture books, he reads them the same as anyone else. So he has always been a reader.
But it is still exciting that in the last couple months he has really started working on sounding out words. We've never pushed word-reading. But when Corbin expresses an interest, we help him with it. We've got the alphabet down. At his pre-K, there is a letter of the week, and they work on both finding the letter and writing it. They work on the sound the letter makes. We piggy back on this, and Corbin has sounded out full words on his own. He's not quite at the stage where he will sound out words in books he is looking at, independently. He will try, when he is ready. He is stepping through his own stages as a reader.
Corbin has also been copying letters for quite a while. We will write what he wants to write, and he will copy it. We call it writing. And it is.
In the last couple of weeks, Corbin has been a bit of a terror (see previous post). It has been very challenging. But a couple of times he has initiated his own coping strategy, one that we had never really suggested. The first time he did it, he told Erin, "I really need a pen." Then he proceeded to draw a picture to let out his feelings. That's right. Corbin is into art therapy. All on his own.
Then, this week, I did something that Corbin didn't like. He left and came back a minute later with this:
It's a little hard to read, but you can see the angry, sharp-toothed man that might be mean-me, or might be angry-Corbin. Next to it, Corbin wrote "iDNDLKU." So, that's "I don't like you." Which made me a little sad, but also HOLY COW HE WROTE SOMETHING!
I think I said something like, "Oh, that makes me really sad...But look! You wrote that all by yourself!" I couldn't really contain my excitement about it, despite what it said.
He left and then came back with more added. "iLVU."
Whoa.
This was the first time Corbin had sounded out and written his own words. It was amazing.
"Corbin! You're figuring out the code of writing!"
He was excited. He left and came back with a picture of "MOME" (Mom-ee) and "DADD" (Dad-dee). What a step to witness.
Today, Corbin came home from daycare with this picture:
We couldn't decipher the word in the bottom left, even with Corbin's help (he tried sounding it out), but you can clearly see "Love" and "Mommy." He also scribbled out a "Love" in the top left. Maybe he wanted it in a different place, or maybe he wasn't satisfied with it. It's hard to know, too, how much his daycare person might have helped. Still. Writing.
Corbin will go to kindergarten next year. It makes me a little nervous, for a variety of reasons. Mostly, though, I am worried about reading and writing. At home, Corbin is a reader. He is a writer. He is a lot of things. I don't want that to change. I don't want anyone to tell him that he isn't a reader yet. That he isn't a writer yet. I don't want anyone to tell him what books he can read and which ones he can't (Of course I'll read that Dora book with you, Corbin [but it might go "missing" later...]).
But what can I do? Some things we can't control. In the meantime, let's read this book. Or write this story. Clearly, Corbin is on his way. He has taken a few more steps on the reading and writing continuum. We're pretty excited to be tagging along.
