Friday, September 26, 2008

Who Are You, And What Have You Done With My Son?

Last week Justin was questioning what all I was teaching Jed. Then the conversation came up about his reading. Last year, reading was hard for him. It didn't come easily, and his 20 minutes a night of reading was like pulling teeth with no toothfairy money to look forward to. Jed's curriculum has a LOT of reading in it, so even though in the back of my mind I was thinking he needs to be reading books, I figured he was reading a ton--to me and silently--that he was doing "enough". Well, after J and I conversed over Jed's "schooling" I started googling books 2nd graders like. Over and over again The Magic Treehouse series came up. I remember my neighbor mentioning she had #1 her daughter had gotten as a present and wasn't able to read it yet, so I called her, she brought it over, and within 24 hours he had read the whole book. I also found a website that has activities and tests over each book with a "passport" he can earn if he passes the comprehension test (kinda like Accelerated Reader Points). He took the first test, passed and printed out his "reward". Since then (one week) we have been to the library, gotten him his very own library card and he has read #1-5 and passed all the tests! In one week! This little guy is on fire! Today, we returned the books he's read and checked out the next 6 books in the series. I am hoping this will last us a couple of weeks, but at the rate he's going, we'll be back at the library by Monday!
Who is this child, and what has he done with my son??? :)

5 comments:

Justin said...

Our boy is growing up! Precious Post! I love you both!

Erickson Family said...

Yea, for magic tree house! Andrew devoured those too! I wish I had known about the comprehension quizes. That is awesome. Glad he is doing so well.

T

Tracybug Creative said...

Gonna file this one away! that's awesome!

Anonymous said...

Going to pick up the first book tomrrow at the library. I understand about pulling teeth to read. Elijah likes to read but it's a real struggle. I think the key is to give them something they want to read...not have to read. Thanks for the insight!

The Joys of having Boys said...

Awesome!! Way to go Jed!! You will have to share the website with me. I am going to get the Magic Tree House also. Thanks.