Reading Motivation and the 6 year old!

Over the long weekend, Maddie suddenly developed reading confidence! Until now, she has had zero motivation to read, and doing so with her was like pulling teeth. I read her a Margaret Wise Brown book called "I Like Bugs" before bed on Saturday night, and she asked if she could stay up to sound it out herself. This was the first time she has ever asked to read after going to bed, and I agreed. She came out about 20 minutes later and read a large portion of the book to her father. She came out to the kitchen to find me cleaning up dinner dishes, and asked me to come into the living room while she read a more difficult book. Maddie, The Doctor, and I sat on the couch and helped Maddie work through the book "Ten Little Ladybugs". Some words she understood from the visual clues on the page, some were sight words, and others were brand new to her. She was very tired after she finished, but seemed very proud of her accomplishment!

Yesterday, Maddie went to work with The Doctor for a few hours, and on their way home, they stopped at Barnes and Noble to pick out some Level 1 books. Maddie wanted books that had a 1 on them (Easy reader level). She picked out one for herself, one she could read to Annelise, and one she could read to Teddy. The Doctor and I both thought that it was adorable, and admirable, that she would choose to buy books specifically with topics that her younger siblings would enjoy.

During school today, we will get out one of those Level 1 books and see how motivated she is. Stay tuned at http://Mimzywood Academy to see how school goes today!