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To read or not to read

Now that it is January and the school year is half over (I think), I am starting to worry about Jordan not yet reading. She recognizes the 20 words in her the first sight word list and probably another dozen or so, but I just thought she would be reading most of the words in some simple books by now.

I clearly am not some type of overachieving parent. I have no expectations for my child to be at the top of her class; I will be happy if she makes A's and Bs. Brian said as long as she tries, that is important. I mostly agree with that, but I will be disappointed if she does try hard and she ends up making mostly Cs. I'd like to think since I made mostly A's from 5th grade on, and I tried, surely she can make B's and A's if she tries; it is not as if I was some brainiac, though, to be fair, I think school was easier back then, and I don't think my alma mater was that tremendous.

When I visited the kindergarten class near the end of last January, to determine if we should send Jordan there, her teacher said that most of the kids could read. I just don't see her being able to read in the next couple of weeks. I mentioned this to Jordan's teacher today, and she said that she is not worried about Jordan. She will learn to read when she is ready, that it is like potty-training. That just did not make me feel better. I am starting to question if perhaps we sent her to school to early.

I am a worrier; most of my family and my close friends know this. As Brian says, if I don't have something to worry about, then I can't be happy (or something like that). I guess all that I can do for now is to read to her, practice her words with her, and hope everything else falls into place. But I will still worry about it. That is one thing I am good at.
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Mel said…
get that ankle well, girl! go stillers! and try not to worry about the reading thing. it's only in the past decade or so that we started expecting kids to read before first grade anyway. I learned in first grade, even though I'd had people reading to me for years. that's just when it clicked and the whole phonics thing started to make sense. I think that's just how people brains work--they have to "get it" and then once they do, they surge forward with no issues. she'll get it. maybe try doing more phonics stuff at home, even just sounding out words on cereal boxes and signs. that's something we do here with our little person, and it's fun and can't hurt.
January 11, 2009 at 1:55 PM
Facie said…
Thanks for the comment. Already, she is improving. I wrote a little story book for her that she drew or traced and color pictures for. I did this because she received her first little book like that on Monday, and she was trying to sound out the words on the way home.
January 14, 2009 at 8:50 AM
Mel said…
that's great! : )
January 14, 2009 at 7:15 PM
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