Things to Consider

1. I will never get sick of hearing Collin read, although everyone else will already be sick of it. Mostly, these things are just for Daddy, who can't hear it.

2. I am amazed at how the little mind works as it learns. I remember as he was learning new skills like walking, how singularly focused his body was, and it seemed like he could only be learning one skill at a time and things he already knew sometimes almost regressed; or he had to focus really hard to retain them. It's almost nostalgic now to watch him struggle with things that were so easy for him a few weeks ago. He never struggled with recognizing letters before, but those pesky "p's," "b's" and "d's" seem to be giving him a lot of trouble in the last few days as his brain tries to process new ways of using them.

3. I do not normally keep a pile of garbage in the corner of my kitchen. In fact, I did not know it was there until moments before we started our work this morning. Collin has a bin of coloring books and papers there that he can access anytime he likes. Apparently, this was his way of cleaning that area up last night. Nice.

4. I wish I'd never offered him a treat the first time he read a book. Now, he thinks he's getting something to eat, anything to eat, after every time he reads anything at all. Last night, he read three books to me before bed and he asked for a pudding cup. This was after he'd brushed his teeth and was in bed. The child is insatiable. One cupcake has ruined my life.

5. Helper words suck. We were stuck on "the" for about two days. I tried to explain to Bryon that I think it is hard because the "e" in "the" is a swallowed schwa sound and the "th" is, I think, a digraph, and I've only really been teaching him simple sounds, so far. So, sounding it out doesn't work. Bryon decided that, at that point, I was lame. I am.

6. I am glad I'm documenting it. I only ever record the first time he reads a book, or anything for that matter. And, I'm not recording everything, but it's so fun to watch them and it will be awesome to have these memories when he's an adult. He and I have had a rough few days and it's been nice to have some rewarding moments together. I really hesitated about trying to teach him this. He's a frustrating student and I was really intimidated by such a large concept for him. I'm so glad that I did it. It's been so rewarding.

7. This is still the coolest thing I've ever seen. I hope I'm this excited when I see him do his first quadratic equation. Or, the first time he goes to the moon, is elected president or the first time he wins a gold medal, whichever comes first.