BookWorm

The best part about this past year has been that Coulson can officially read!!! I've probably mentioned before that he is an intense child who doesn't like to play by himself. About 3 years ago Casey and I realized in exasperation that other than constant playdates with friends, the only relief we can hope for is for him to learn to read. And so we have been anticipating this wonderful achievement for a long time now. I tried to teach him myself a little without being too pushy, but he could only handle about 5 minutes a week, so we didn't make much progress. Last year he could read simple one-syllable words in easy sentences, but he would get way too frustrated to try to sound out anything he didn't know. Somehow during the school year, he just started reading, like something clicked and a light bulb turned on and he was reading. Casey and I are both readers (or would be readers if we had more spare time, but we can consume a stack of books on vacation) so we proud to see that Coulson seems to be a reader also. Right now, he is devouring any Magic Treehouse (think Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, but with 1st graders who speak standard English) or Junie B. Jones (reminds me of Ramona Q. as a kindergartner/1st grader) he can find at the libraries and even finished a more advanced Star Wars book this weekend. I realized that he will now surpass me in Star Wars knowledge if he continues reading all of the books (there are A LOT of Star Wars books out there that go beyond the movies) since I only know the movie stuff. The other day we went to Borders to get a book for Casey for Father's Day and he behaved as badly as if he were in a toy store, whining for me to buy him a book and getting upset when I told him he would have to save up for it. I was completely annoyed at his behavior at the store, but happy that he valued books so highly. He told me tonight that he is saving his allowance to buy a book. Yeah, we're proud of our bookworm!