Friday, January 11, 2008

Clicking with Reading?

Reading has never come easy for Sparkle. To help her learn, we had her tutored during first grade and she continues to meet with a reading specialist at school this year. Despite some great strides and improvements, she has never found it to be enjoyable. She's still at the stage where it is hard work and she NEVER chooses reading as a fun diversion for when she has free time.

But that may have all changed this week...

In class they just started reading The Boxcar Children. These mystery books were first published in 1942 and there are 119 books in the series. It's about 4 orphaned siblings who live together in a boxcar after their parents die. Eventually the children's wealthy grandfather finds them and gives them a wonderful home, but their adventures don't stop there. They travel to all parts of the country, see exciting places, and become involved in strange and mysterious happenings.

Sparkle LOVES this book. So much so that last night she read me six pages out of the book---two pages more than she was supposed to read. It was some of the best reading I've heard from her. AND...she took another book in the series from her classroom library and is READING IT FOR FUN BECAUSE SHE LIKES IT SO MUCH. This is huge for her. Huge.

I'm not sure what these books have that the other 92 books in our house didn't have, but I'm thrilled that maybe reading is clicking for her and she will finally find it fun and enjoyable.

6 comments:

This Journey of Mine said...

I LOVED those books, when I was a kid. LOVED them! Enjoy Sparkle. They are fun.

Melissa said...

And, the really good news is that there are about a hundred of them! That should last her the next year or so!

#1 liked them a lot, but nothing compared to the Babysitter Club books!

Livin' Life said...

Shaggy tore into this series. He loves to read them. He also likes a series called Redwall by Brian Jaques(I think thats how you spell his name) They might be more boyish but it is true his two favorites are Boxcar Children and Redwall.

The Gang's Momma! said...

Hey, my Shaggy liked the same books, too, LL!

We also love Junie B. Jones and LadyBug is REALLY enthralled with all the different American Girl books. They are so sweet and cute. I brought home Pippi Longstocking from the school library when I worked this week and she's almost done already. Very funny. I loved Amelia Bedelia at this age, but Dr. D is the only one of mine so far that liked them too.

Congrats on falling in love with reading, Sparkle. Now you can be like the rest of us bookies and ignore your to-do lists and read late into the night only to walk around like a zombie the next day :)

Unknown said...

I remember loving the Boxcar Children in third grade. I was way into Nancy Drew at the time, but Tommy Blohm was obsessed with the Boxcar Children and I was obsessed with Tommy Blohm. He was, like, soooooo fine. I'm sure Sparkle's motivation is purer than mine!

CampHillGirl said...

The Boxcar Children was the first Big book I ever read, loved them. As a result, they were also my eldest two's first Big book, too. They are just great, all the requirements of a kid's classic--kids basically on their own, without adults, solving real problems. My third grader just discovered a series called "Warriors" that has him eager to run off and read. Love it!