My Reading and Homework-Loving Rock Star

I've mentioned before that Connor was enrolled in a reading class this past summer. The class introduced 20 sight words for beginning readers and helped foster enthusiasm for books and reading. After Connor completed the summer reading class, his love for words and reading really took off. He would often ask me to write sentences for him to read at home, and I would sneak in some new words that he usually managed to figure out.

Since Connor started kindergarten, his reading vocabulary continues to grow by leaps and bounds. He brings home his school library books and reads them with little help. While he reads to us, Jeff and I keep exchanging looks because we are so surprised at how much progress he has made in such a short time. I had been told by other Moms about how much growth to expect in Connor's kindergarten year, but it continues to catch me off guard.

Here's a video clip of Connor reading his school library book called Just a Daydream. It's a bit long, but I promised the Grandparents that I would post it!



I think I posted this before, but Connor was NOT happy when he found out he would have homework in kindergarten. He had no idea what it meant, other than a certain brother in his house was always complaining about it so it must be a bad thing. Connor had his very first homework assignment this week: labeling a picture of a scarecrow and filling in letters of animal words. When I showed Connor his homework paper, his eyes lit up and he was so excited! He couldn't wait to complete the assignment and he even went a step further and colored the pictures.

Here's his completed homework, front and back.

Just in case you noticed, I did my VERY best not to correct Connor's spelling on his words. The instructions said to let the child figure it out for themselves. So when he wrote "pockit" for pocket and "puckin" for pumpkin, I told Connor how to correctly spell them after I had already put his paper in his folder. I'm not sure if that's how I'm supposed to handle it going forward?? It's very hard not to step in and help but I want Connor to feel confident doing his own work.

Now... if only I could figure out how to bottle up his enthusiasm for reading and homework until, say, after college??

Here's another related story that I wanted to share. Connor's kindergarten class has writing time every day where they write stories and illustrate them in their writing journals. Connor came home last week telling me that his teacher, Mrs. Hunter, complimented him on his story that day and said she wanted to take it to Mrs. Hernandez. I asked him who Mrs. Hernandez was, and then I remembered suddenly that she is the school principal. I was curious as to why the teacher would want to show the principal Connor's story. Later that night, I got a call from Mrs. Hunter on an unrelated topic. During our discussion, she mentioned that she was so proud of Connor's work that day. It was about a rock star and he had written the story, illustrated it, and labeled all of the parts of the pictures. She was so impressed that she wanted to show the principal how well her kids are learning. When the principal saw Connor's story, she too was impressed and asked, "What grade is he in?" And Mrs. Hunter surprised her when she responded, "Kindergarten!"

Can you tell that I'm proud of my little rock star?!