For the past few months when Sue and I do not want Ryan to know what we are talking about we will spell the key words in the sentence. Words that he should not be repeating or ones that we fear he will fire away with those “what’s [fill in the blank]” questions were masked behind the letters that make them. Occasionally, we would spell the word and he would make an educated guess of what word we spelled after which Sue and I would look at each other with a hint of fear. Well, tonight we started digging in and teaching Ryan to read. He has a hand full of Diego books that are great starters for learning to read. The sentences are usually no more than four or five words and the words themselves are rarely more than a syllable.

Every night since I can remember…and my memory is terrible…we would read a book or two to Ryan before he went to bed for the night. Our ritual usually starts with first rounding up whatever stuffed animals and blankets he brought downstairs that morning. Then we brush his teeth and get him into his PJ’s. As punishment for any temper tantrums he may have thrown during the first few steps we might skip the book reading step which is next. He quickly cleaned his act up because the book reading step was his favorite. Now at four years old the ritual is second nature and usually goes off without a problem. It almost saddens me that soon he will be reading his own books and probably not need dad to read to him.

Tonight Ryan did an amazing job of looking at words, sounding them out and eventually saying the word. With each page he seemed to be picking up on words faster and remember words he already learned. Using the technique we are using now makes me realize how tricky our language can be. Words like “to”, “me” and “by” can be a little hard to grasp if you are just sounding them out. Heck, I sometimes have a hard time talking in our language and I’m sure there are a number of people I work with that wish I couldn’t talk. But I am ultra proud of Ryan’s reading progress so far.

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