conuly

I have a few, actually, but it'll have to wait until tomorrow when I can recall who said what, exactly.

This is a boastful post.

Evangeline is learning how to read :)

Apparently (according to her teacher to her mother) she's in the top group for everything, which is pretty nice considering she's one of the younger kids in the class! Now every day, more or less, I sit down with her and a simple book (and it has come in handy that I ended up giving them all their darn reading levels last year!) and she reads it to me. I do help her out with the harder words, and she has to sound a lot of stuff out still, but she's getting there! And of course now everything she sees she starts spelling. "Connie? What does a u t o"
"Autozone"
"z o"
"Autozone!"
"n e spell?"
"Autozone!"
"Is that in another country? Are we in another country now?"
"WHAT???"

(Look, I snuck a cute kid story in here anyway!)

And Ana is, of course, reading. Now, last year her teacher decided she was behind in writing (something *this* year's teacher thought was absurd, apparently) and, because she wouldn't write about what she read didn't move her up in her official reading level because, after all, she couldn't prove Ana comprehended what she was reading. (Just asking her about what she read would be too difficult and more time-consuming than making her write, I guess.) Because of this, Ana miraculously jumped 5 levels over the summer, from "J" to "O". *eyeroll* And even that may be underestimating her reading ability.

See, we've been reading Anne of Green Gables together. And let me tell you, I, frankly, am amazed at how well Ana's taken to it! I'm not editing out all the description either. Some of the description, but not all of it!

Now, normally when we read a book together I ban her from reading ahead. I have been known to (gently!) hit her on the head with a book and the stern injunction "NO! READING! AHEAD!" because, after all, it's not like we have a shortage of other books for her to read. And I'm strict. Strict but cruel - I insist we read *only* a chapter at a time. Gotta leave her hanging, right? You don't build readers being nice, right? (Wait, what am I saying? I want them to STOP reading, it's annoying! They read at bedtime, at dinnertime, at family game time, and when walking home from school! Slows me down something fierce! Man, I better start filling out that "read a lot to win a trip to Six Flags" form they got from school, they need to learn now that the only reason to read is so you can do something fun afterwards as a reward for suffering.) But with Anne, as I was saying, I was absolutely willing to let her try a chapter on her own. I did warn her, though, reading it is different from having it read to you, and I thought she might find it tough going. Indeed, she managed three pages before putting it down in disgust.

Well, I told this story to Jenn, and Ana laughed at the retelling, but I guess I just dared her to do better because the next time she picked it up she did finish the chapter! I know - I asked her about it. (No, I did not believe it!)

Now, I'm not entirely convinced she understood all of it - L. M. Montgomery was a real fan of description and long sentences, and Anne likes her big words. But she understood the important part, that is, the plot. She knew what happened. She quoted a relevant passage to prove it, after summarizing for me.

Depending on whom you ask, and what system they use, Anne of Green Gables is either a late fifth-grade book or a middle of seventh grade book. Ana, of course, is seven years old.

Also, her cursive is beautiful. Evangeline wants to learn too, but I told her I want her reading firmly before adding cursive to her workload.

So yeah. I'm bragging here. I think I'm allowed to.