Z's Reading

Z, who turned 4 a week and a half ago, is doing quite well with the books his big brother, J, brings home from kindergarten. About once a week, he brings home a photocopied half-sheet "book" that he's supposed to read to his parents. Ha. Once he asked me if he could read to me, please, because if he does, he gets to raise his hand and get a Skittle. But even a Skittle isn't enough motivation to get him to read these books to me. He currently has his nose stuck in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

But Z is eating them up. They are even better than the Bob books I mentioned in an earlier post. They're simple, with simple words. His favorite one, which we must read every night, is titled We Can Fix.

I'm rather sick of it, but he flies through it now, so I don't suffer too long.

Tonight, it was upside-down when I pulled it out of the special folder marked, "J's special books." (These were given out by the teacher.) I decided to tease him, and left it upside-down. He hardly looked at the cover page, but said, "We Can Fix!" Then I opened it and kept it upside-down.

"Mom! I can't read it upside-down!"
"Sure you can," I said, pointing to the first word. "What does that say?" It was simply the letter I.
"I, but the n's look like u's!" he giggled.

When I finally flipped the book right-side-up, he surprised me by reading the sentences backwards. To be silly, of course. He started off reading, "bed a fix can I." (I can fix a bed.) But as he got further into the book, he got more crafty and read, "tep a fix nac I." (I can fix a pet.) He never could wrap his little brain around the word "xif" because, really, it makes no sense. But almost everything else, he read completely backwards.

Because, you know, he's got to keep this reading thing challenging.