Satan, burping and how it relates to reading readiness?

My little guy looked up at my with big doe eyes and asked if he could come to the service with us instead of go to his Sunday School class.  I love having my children with me and quickly nodded my assent.  As the sermon progressed, Trey nestled into the crook of my arm, *taking notes* and decorating the church bulletin.   Suddenly, I felt his body stiffen and he tugged at my arm as he pointed to his drawing.

“Mommy, does this spell “Sa tan?”

In shock, I glanced down and sure enough, he had drawn a picture of a snake (the pastor had just mentioned the fall in the Garden of Eden) and had boldly written S-A-T-I-N.  I stopped my giggle before it escaped as I nodded my head.  At 5.5, this boy of mine had been so eager to start reading and while we progressed beautifully with our Cursive First program and doing gross-motor handwriting and phonics work, he just hadn’t made the leap into blending sounds.  I’ve read all the research {and collected helpful links on reading readiness} and I know better than to push.  It’s far better to put it aside and pick it up later.   It is far more valuable to feed his imagination with great books, give him meaningful work to do and protect his time for free play so he can cement into his mind all of the interesting things that he’s learning about.

But here he is, just a few weeks later, blending and independently sounding out words.  Oh how quickly they change.  Recently, I participated on a Google Hangout with the iHomeschool Network.  The topic was one of my favorites: the preschool years!  Ironically, I had actually shared about Trey’s desire to learn, but the evidence that his brain just wasn’t wired to progress just yet.  And in the blink of an eye it seemed, something happened and it was clicking.  With relish, he  was running around sounding out words.

The next day, he begged to do spelling first!   So I set the bigger boys off on their math and settled down to have him put his first words in our little hand-made spelling notebook that I’ve done now with each of my boys.  With an earnest look in his eyes, he seriously asked me if I could teach him how to spell BURP.  In stunned silence, I just sat staring at him… He pleaded with me to add this word to his spelling lesson.  Can someone say, “ALL BOY”?

My goal by the time he grows up is that he will learn the proper time and place to BURP since I had come to realize that I was fighting a losing battle to make this topic and behavior seem unappealing.  And I have and wrote to tell the story… With the added bonus of learning /ur/ the er of Church that day, that eager, but still young son of mine lasted for a grand total of 3 words before he was off to fight imaginary revolutionary war battles…

Children all develop at different rates and a wise parent (or teacher) won’t push before they are ready. I’ve shared with hundreds of parents about this important point. When there is a desire to progress and we see signs of readiness, we dance with them forward. When they express fatigue or disinterest (a hidden sign of fatigue often-times) we back off and wait a little longer. This boy of mine had many spurts in development where we would start or continue working on his phonics and reading. But he wasn’t truly “ready” until he reached 7.5 years old – TWO whole years after this episode. But he progressed from struggling through a Bob book or two to reading chapter books like The Boxcar Children within a month. To date, he is probably my most voracious reader. When they are ready, they will take off and fly! In the meantime, enjoy the journey, try to keep the giggles contained, and extend patience and grace in this unpredictable journey.