Then there were two (readers)

Colm has officially joined the ranks of family members who read. He and I have been leisurely working our way through the book Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. I recommend to anyone looking for something to lend a little structure to their efforts to help a youngster learning to decode and sound out words. We are at or near lesson 40.

After some initial ups and downs with the process, owing as much to my own learning curve concerning pace and energy as to Colm's capacities, Colm displays real enthusiasm for reading the little stories which conclude each lesson. Often, when we get to the end of a lesson, he wants to peek ahead and see what new sounds are going to be introduced.

Tess has picked up on this new development, and lately she is keenly interested in this book that Colm and I are reading. She sometimes hangs around and watches Colm's lesson from behind my shoulder. She whispers words into my ear that Colm is slowly sounding out. She smiles at me conspiratorially. She's very good about not giving away information and letting Colm work things out at his own pace, but she's also very eager to show off her own prowess. I've noticed her picking up the book on her own and looking through it's pages. She turns to the final lessons where the stories are longest and she reads them quickly and then goes back to her chapter books.

Then, yesterday I overheard her helping Colm read a story in the book. She wasn't reading to him, she was tutoring him. I looked in on them and saw Colm upside down on the couch and Tess holding the book so that he could read it. They were both thoroughly amused by the project of learning to read while sitting upside down. I think Tess maybe has the teacher gene.
K