Let the Reading Adventures Begin!

The boys have really enjoyed their new school this year. In January, the owner approached me about switching the boys from the Starfish Pre-K classroom to the Orca Pre-K classroom. A nearby Montessori school had closed and new kids were going to be in the boys' class. To make room for the new students, they decided re-evaluate the placement of all of the students in relation to ability. Since the boys had been doing very well, the director and teachers thought the Orca class would be a better fit and a better challenge. While the boys were a little reluctant to leave Ms. Jenny, Mr. Alex, and their Starfish friends, the have transitioned well into the Orca class with Ms. Jen. They did know some of their new classmates, because all of the Pre-K students have recess together and they are combined together as students are picked up in the afternoon and evening.

Eric and I have noticed that the boys have been working on more writing and today we found out about their new reading project. Ms. Jen sent home with each of them a plastic envelope with two books. The boys are supposed to read the books to us and we sign off on their checklist. Once they have read 20 books, they get a prize. Once they fill out the whole sheet (70 books), they get to pick out a brand new book to take home and keep.

I arrived home from school a little after six and the boys met me at the garage door to tell me about their reading project. Reid wanted to sit down right away and read his two books to me. I resisted the temptation to record the moment with pictures or videos during the first readings. It was really awesome to have him read to me. Aiden was a little more reluctant and said he didn't want to read to me because he already read to Eric and he was too tired. 

(A related story- The boys were assigned the task of writing their names on their Valentine's cards. Eric split up the task and had the boys do a few cards each day. Aiden was too tired, or his legs hurt, or he had already signed his name enough times, etc. You get the picture. On the other hand, Eric said Reid would have finished signing his Valentine's in one day. He ended up signing all of them that came in the box, which was way more than he needed to do. We later joked that this is probably what we're going to see with homework. Aiden will be able to figure out a way to get Reid to do his homework for him and Reid will be happy to help.)

After the first readings of Reid's two books, I asked if I could video him and he was every excited about that.

"At Work":

"What am I?":


Reid wanted to read his books for me again at bedtime. Usually, we let both Aiden and Reid pick out a couple of books for us to read to them. After almost five years, the roles are reversing.

"At Work" (Take 2):

We were almost done with book time, when Aiden decided he wanted a chance to read on video too. (I figured that was coming. He makes us work for our requests.) I can tell he was relying a little more on memory and figuring out the words based on the pictures, but he still did a great job. Both videos cut out early because I was running out of space on my phone. Perhaps I should delete some of my 7,000 photos.

First, Aiden requested a "cheese" picture:

"Toys' Night Out"


"I See Fish"