Joseph is Reading!!!

Joseph reading "Return of the Jedi" tonight at the bar.

Joseph started Kindergarten this fall and has impressed me with his eagerness to learn. He frequently asks to do homework and I have to come up with things for him to do because he only gets one worksheet of homework a week in his Friday folder. Jacob (who is in 1st grade) has much more homework and Joseph gets frustrated and upset that he doesn't have more like his brother. One thing he does have though is his little sight words on a ring that get sent home from school. He has about 20 of them now and so sometimes for "homework" I'll have him go through them with me.

Recently, I thought I'd add to his "homework" by having him sit and read an early reading (level 1) book to me every night. He loved it and rarely forgot to remind me that it was time to do his "homework" and read me a book. After about the third day of doing this I was already seeing improvement. I could not believe how quickly he was picking it up! I was so impressed by his ability to sound out the letters and blend them so easily into words.

Tonight he was sitting at the bar while I was making dinner. He got a Star Wars book at the Library on Friday and was up there sitting with his brothers reading the book! I was blown away that he was reading this book! Jacob was helping him with some of the harder words but he was reading steadily without difficulty with little to no help! I got the camcorder out and was going to attach it to this post but Aaron thinks it's probably just something that only we would get excited about. Soooooo, you'll just have to take my word for it that it was really awesome.

The main reason why this is such a big deal for me is because I am starting to see that reading and words are something that he is going to excel in. It has been very frustrating for me as a mother to have my oldest son be so talented in everything (I'm sorry if that sounds boastful) but to have his younger brother live in that shadow and to feel like nothing he does is as good as Jacob - it's been really hard. I've tried to boost him up and encourage him but he always sees himself as coming second to Jacob. Now that he is reading so well (and getting so much praise and attention for it-even from his older brother) I can see his little self esteem starting to grow. This makes me so happy and I feel so grateful to have discovered something that he does so well (even better than his brother did when he was in Kindergarten). Which for Joseph, is a badge of honor that he will wear with pride.