Reading Adventures

We've had lots of reading excitement around here lately. Just a few days after her third birthday, Elsa read her first few words!

She's known all the letter sounds for a while now, but she had yet to string the sounds together and figure out a word from it. Then I bought her this set of little books called "Bob Books," and it suddenly seemed to click for her. These books are extremely basic (just three or four words and sounds per book), so they're perfect for her. The first time we sat down with Book 1, Elsa sounded out each letter in the word "Mat" a few times, and then figured out what the word was, all on her own. She proceeded to do that for the words "sat" and "Sam" as well. (The only other word in Book 1 is "on," and she needed a little help with that one.) Here she is reading from Book 2:

She gets super excited when she figures out what a new word is. In fact, she now insists that these are her favorite books. Since it can't be because of the scintillating plot, I guess that means she really likes reading. : ) Unfortunately she's already figured out that she can use the pictures and the first sound in the word to guess what the word is, so now she tends to do that instead (and is sometimes wrong) before trying to sound out the word. But I'm sure a lot of kids do that when they're first learning to read, and at least it's teaching her about context.

Our other reading adventure is that I've started reading chapter books out loud to Elsa each night before bed. I found this list on Amazon of novels to read aloud to a "gifted" 3-year-old, so I knew I wasn't the only one crazy enough to try it. : ) And there's no doubt Elsa has the attention span for it. I chose "Charlotte's Web" as our first book, and we've been reading a chapter or two each night. We're now about three-quarters of the way through it. For the most part, she seems to be following along—she asks questions about what words mean, etc. She loves our nightly reading time, and when the chapter ends, she always begs me to keep reading.

But I had forgotten in the 25-plus years since I read "Charlotte's Web" just how much talk of death there is. Of course I knew it was a major plot point, and I don't think Elsa needs to be sheltered from the concept entirely. What I was not counting on was the strong language used to describe death—the words "kill" and "murder" are used frequently. So I've been substituting kinder, gentler terms where necessary. We talk about how Mr. Zuckerman "wants to turn Wilbur into a ham," which at least is a little more abstract than Mr. Zuckerman "murdering" Wilbur. We also had a discussion of how farm animals aren't pets, like Belle. They have jobs to do, and sometimes that job is to provide food for humans. It may be a little sad, and it's okay to be sad about it, but it's a necessary part of life. I've also made sure to point out that in Wilbur's specific case, Charlotte is definitely going to rescue him. I want Elsa to be in suspense about how Wilbur will be saved, not if he will be saved (and that's really how the book is written anyway).

Obviously, Charlotte's death is still to come, but I think I'm prepared for that, too. I'm going to talk about how Charlotte was extremely old for a spider, and that this happens to all spiders as a part of their natural life cycle. We're also going to talk about how Charlotte lived a full life, using the time she had to help Wilbur and make a difference in his life, which is one of the most important things anybody can do.

And I'm already looking forward to our next book! I'm thinking I might do either The Mouse and the Motorcycle or one of the other Beverly Cleary books, or the first Little House book. There's also this Jenny and the Cat Club series, which I'm not familiar with, but they look like good choices too. So far, I think I'm enjoying this process even more than Elsa is. : )