Day 1,017 - Ready to Read

Something important happened. That's the only excuse for me missing (checks calendar) 13 days of blogging about stay-at-home dad duties. Right? Right? Right?

Sorry to disappoint but nothing monumental happened. There were a few playdates, a trip to Savannah and Nebraska, a zoo trip(!), the 'Psych' book series, and March Madness. Actually, just blame my lack of posting all on that last one. As everyone knows, once you get out of a habit, it's extremely difficult to get back into the swing of things.

While there is plenty of minutiae to report on, I want to remember one of the biggest things happening right now in our house. Over the past month, Ellie has made steady progress on her reading abilities and I'm proud to report that she is officially a reading machine! Well, reading machine might be overselling it; that would make her a Kindle instead of a human being.  However, that being said, she has definitely taken great strides in her reading abilities over the last month.

A portrait of Ellie. Wait, no, that's a Kindle.

It started simply enough with Bethany and I specifically asking Ellie to identify words here and there in books over the past year. Then, my mom dug into her stash of supplies from her days as a reading teacher and found a lot of sight words for us to work on with her. Her preschool teachers also did the same and before we knew what was happening, Ellie was reading books aloud to us.

Now, I should mention that she's not reading 'War and Peace' or 'Atlas Shrugged'. I haven't even read any of those! Although, for the record, I was supposed to read 'Atlas Shrugged' for an extremely painful class in college for Professor Steve Gilbert. However, it seemed like a much better use of my time to read the chapter summaries on Spark Notes. Spoiler alert: it was, except I've still never read 'Atlas Shrugged'. 

At least I remember what the cover looked like. That counts for something, right?

Obviously, Ellie is reading age appropriate books. Our favorites right now happen to be the 'Ready to Read' series and the 'I Can Read' series. Both have various levels with Ellie currently finding herself on Level 1. The great thing about these books is that we're finding subject matter that Ellie is actually interested in and has previous exposure to. Some of her favorites include stories about 'Paw Patrol' and 'Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood'. Since she knows the characters already, it's making it so much easier for her since names sometimes cause her to struggle.

Ellie's current favorites include the above.

My favorite thing about watching Ellie read is seeing the confidence that she is seemingly building in her abilities day in and day out. While she will inevitably struggle with a word the first time she sees it, it doesn't take her long to figure it out. For the most part, once she successfully sounds out a word once, she has it figured out and will get the word just by looking at it.

While I was a little afraid that Ellie would lose her desire to have me read to her once she learned to read, that fear has not come to pass. She still adores sitting in Bethany's or my lap and being read to. While I know that will eventually end, I'm determined to enjoy those times while they still take place. I can't speak for Bethany though. Joking!

#DaddyWrite

Day 1,003 - The One with What is Essentially Ellie's Report Card

I just finished writing (what I thought was) a clever blog opening about how much time runs together as a stay-at-home parent. I made a joke about how days and weeks and months often tend to blend together. Then I mentioned how years are exempt from this rule only because of the presence of birthdays and Christmas and Columbus Day. It's funny because no one really acknowledges or even cares about Columbus Day. Get it? 

Robert California knows what's up.

Anyway, the only thing that can add to that little story is the fact that as soon as I finished writing it, my PC flashed the blue screen of death necessitating a restart and yes, you guessed it, me getting to rewrite my opening since it wasn't saved. No worries though.

Back to the topic at hand. I bring up the idea of time running together because that's exactly what happens to me. It's especially true during those times that I neglect to write things down. Therefore, I find myself completely unable to remember if something happened on the Tuesday or this week or the Tuesday of last week. I supposed it doesn't really matter; the lack of knowing will just haunt my dreams tonight.

The topic in question is referring to Bethany and me receiving Ellie's progress report from preschool. This was actually a really exciting thing for us as Bethany and I had been eager to know how Ellie was progressing at school. While we can see certain things at home, we certainly can't accurately gauge her skills in the same way a trained teacher can.

As we looked at Ellie's progress report, we first noticed that nearly everything was perfect. Her academic progress was all at the "Mastered" level and if we had any doubts at all, her teacher had included multiple assessments taken throughout the year confirming that Ellie had indeed "Mastered"...things. There were two areas though that Ellie scored a mere "Improving" which caused us a little concern.

The first was in the area of ability to be respectful of other children's needs and feelings. What? How can that be? Not our Ellie? If those comments seem disingenuous, I assure you they are not. Bethany and I were honestly shocked about that as we've never seen anything other than the extreme love that Ellie shows for her friends and brother. The other area the teacher marked Ellie as "Improving" in was in regards to her ability to verbalize needs and feelings. According to her progress report, Ellie has been known to use her hands instead of her words in certain situations.

After talking to people in the education field that we trust, it was made evident that we don't have anything to worry about. We just need to continue to help Ellie learn to express herself in a positive manner. She also needs to continue to grow in understanding her own emotions.

The weird thing about Ellie's progress report is how I reacted to it. While I should have been unbelievably stoked about all of the areas she did well in, I instead couldn't get my mind off those two "Improving" ratings. Don't worry though as I took great care to not let Ellie know that was happening.

Honestly, I'm glad my mind responded in that fashion. For one thing, I'm sure I'll experience similar emotions the first time Ellie gets a B or C in school. Therefore, it's really important for me to figure out how to respond and deal with those emotions. It's also important to remember that I need to focus not just on the bad things but also focus on all of the things Ellie does well. After all, I want Ellie to grow up knowing that Bethany and I are proud of her and that all we ask is that she does her best.

At least that's the case until she becomes President of the United States. Then she needs to be perfect. Also, I guarantee that those will be four (or eight) years I'll remember every single day of. #DaddyWrite

A photo from Day 1,002