Friday, February 27, 2015

Teaching Maxwell to Read

I fell into the trap of thinking that he would just fit into the Abby mold and pick it up like she did, naturally, as a Psych degree holder you would think that I would've known better than that. Big surprise that Maxwell didn't fit the Abby learning how to read mold. He didn't want to even attempt to, which scared me, but I'm a worrier. I love being able to be in my kiddos' classrooms and being involved in that way in their education.Being in his classroom I've learned techniques to use with him at home, like: echo read, word groups, listening to books. It's CHAMPION to be on the same page with his teacher.
One week that I was in his classroom, I saw Max reading Captain Underpants to his friends. His excitement was contagious. 
We've found that Maxwell will put in the effort to read these books: Captain Underpants,  Comic books, & STARWARS. It's a start.I do remember that when I was doing literacy workshops for KUED for parents the information said to let them pick what they would read.
He's catching on, even reading everything while in the car. It's been quite the process, but worth it.
When we are at church we bring a churchbag with some paper and crayons to help entertain the kiddos. A few months ago, Max showed me what he'd been working on, he wrote a  Halloween book about the costumes. He was very proud to show me the illustrations.We took it to family dinner, where Amber Shaffer, Lex's sister-in-law commented that he may be a writer,  instead of a reader. I'm happy that he could be both now.
 He's constantly looking  for shortcuts to be able to crack the code.Not wanting to follow rules or to work too hard.
it takes time. I kept telling him, but really was reminding myself this fact.
I got him STARWARS phonics books at the library. I was so excited that one Saturday morning instead of sitting in front of the TV, he brought the books to me and asked me if he could read them with me. I almost cried with joy.He wants to read fast, getting ahead of himself. A CHAMPION  problem to have. 
I was looking on GROUPON, a weakness of mine. I've had to learn to check with Lex before I buy anything.I saw and didn't buy, I'm proud to say, a pack of Tshirts, one of them said, "World's Okayest DAD." After this learning curve with my Maxwell I felt that I could've gotten away with someday owning one. One of my lines that I always tell people about my kiddos is, they're a lot of work, but worth it.

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