Lou is finally starting to come out of her spastic goony pre-schooler period, which has gone on now for FOUR YEARS. She's got her first really loose tooth, a lower front one, for starters. She's beginning to calm down and not mug non-stop all day. She's sleeping in her own bed, and not her sister's, more and more.
And yesterday, she officially joined the ranks of readers.
Josie had gone out to spend her birthday gift certificate to Powell's with her grandparents, leaving Lou and me alone in the house. So we sat down, slightly against her will, with the McGuffey First Reader and looked at the first five lessons.
She practically sailed through them! I know Josie has been sort of teaching Lou from the Reader, but she obviously hadn't memorized all of the lessons. And when we got to a word that stymied her in Lesson V, "catch," once I reminded her that "ch" sounds "chuh" she sounded the word out on her own.
I cheered and yelled and grabbed her and kissed her all over and made her giggle and squeal. "Lou! You're a reader now!"
And that message seems to have taken. Last night, she read Lesson VI for her dad, and then the two of them went to the store. "Look, dad, that's organic," said Lou. Really? said daddy, how do you know? "It says 'organic' right on it--o-r-g-a-n-i-c." John gaped. "I can read now," Lou added matter-of-factly, "Mama taught me this afternoon."
See why we love homeschooling so much? I wouldn't have missed yesterday for anything.
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