Christian reads his 1st chapter book

Recently, i thought that Christian might be ready for chapter books, based on the progress which I’d noticed in his reading. He surprises me with the words he can read sometimes, and I am so glad that all our efforts to instill a love for reading is finally paying off. I can’t help but beam when he automatically picks out books to read after dinner, or when he says “mama you loved to read when you were small right? That’s why I love to read too..”

In any case I recently borrowed two “chapter books” from the library to test the waters..”Chapter books” have few pictures and, as the name suggests, a few chapters within them.

Christian’s first reaction when he saw them was “why are there no pictures in there?”

I explained that since he could read now, it’s time to learn how to form the pictures in his brain now. And so we started on “The Puffin Book of Stories for 5 Year-Olds”.

I sat by his side as he read aloud, pausing occasionally only to answer my questions and to slow him down so he could focus on what was being conveyed. He did not need my help to decipher the words in that first story of the book, and grinned ear to ear when I asked him to close his eyes to check if he had the picture of the story in his mind. Success!

This other book is the first chapter book he read, and I am glad he really enjoyed it and laughed as he read.

Hopefully the joy of reading will continue to follow him as he grows older and as more distractions come his way.