Makana reads Go Dog Go

This morning Makana (age 7) picked up Go Dog GO to read to Kanoa (age 3).  He lost interest, but she read it to me and herself aloud!  She was so surprised that suddenly she could do it!  I was excited for her!  Before she could only read some words.  This time, she got all the words except for two of them!  This is an example of her being able to read when she was ready.

Whenever she got in the mood for a book, Go Dog Go was the one she picked up to look through and "read" more than any other book and I know she really wanted to be able to read it word for word by herself.  She would say aloud (to herself, me or someone else) what she remembered on each page, coming up with similar sentences descriptive of the pictures, but not necessarily exactly what was written.  Most of the time she read it the way she could and got much enjoyment out of it.  When she was frustrated in the past at not being able to read the way Jim or I or Katie or Li did, I told her that she'd be able to read when She was ready and that people are ready at different times and it would happen.  We made a list of the words that she did knew and that seemed to please her.

I suspected that her ability to read it was coming as she's been writing alot over the past few months while gaming and skpying, asking me to spell or write for her when needed.  I noticed that she could write and spell more and more words and I noticed that she was able to read more words as well.  It was so exciting this morning to hear her read aloud and feel so happy about finally being able to do something she has been wanting to do for so long!  She said that I had always said it would happen when she was ready, and it did!   Awesome!