Lauren's been able to decode words for quite some time now. Until recently, however, reading never quite "clicked." It was almost as if Lauren hadn't ever figured out that all the words worked together to tell a story that she might actually be interested in figuring out.
I wish I knew exactly what helped Lauren make the transition to reading. I suspect a lot of it had to do with a specific book recommendation from her Science Olympiad partner Tom. We were meeting at a library, and Tom had just finished reading Shiloh. He told her how good it was and even found a copy on the shelves for her to check out.
Honestly, Shiloh sat untouched in a basket in Lauren's room for several weeks. One day Lauren happened to see it and remember that she might see Tom at an upcoming meeting. She picked up the book, read a couple chapters, and then was hooked.
She didn't put it down while she was fixing some lunch:
She made sure it was with us when we were in the car:
Whether it was the book or the timing, I'll never know. I'm just very thankful that something finally worked and she's now a reader.
Last night she texted me to see if I could guess how many books she read in April. I'm glad she kept a record of them -- I never thought that she'd get to a point where she could plow through 15 books in a month.
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It was this way with "Diary of a wimpy Kid" for Marshall. Not as good as Shiloh but I know he has personally read everyone of the diary books at least 3 times.
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