Bookworm

It's World Book Day today, so it's a good excuse to finally publish a post that I've been writing about Nicholas' reading ability for ages now. I didn't want to brag, but I decided that I have the right to because I am so proud of my little boy. At the age of only 5, he is reading fluently and confidently, and far beyond what is expected of him. Best of all, he has a passion for books, and that's exactly what we have always hoped for and tried to encourage. I trust that we'll provide the right stimulation to always encourage him to stay ahead of the pack!

Nicholas started showing signs that he was ready to read ages ago. One day I came across him reading Mr Brown Can Moo Can You? by Dr Seuss to Daniel. Granted, he was only reading the sound words, and he was obviously using the pictures as a clue, but that is how it all starts. I was so impressed, especially when he got to the last page, where there were no pictures as clues, and he managed to read most of the simple little words. This video clip was taken 17 August 2010 when he was 3 and 3/4 years old!

He became fascinated with letter, and subsequently word, flashcards and magnets. Whenever we got into the car we had to play 'I spy'. It wasn't long before we started doing crosswords and playing games like scrabble. He loved every minute of it and always begged for more. Up until then things kind of just happened by accident. I then found some box sets geared towards children learning to read, amongst others the Oxford Reading Tree, which progress at a perfect pace as the child's reading ability develops. Incidentally, the school uses the similar books once the kids have Jolly Phonics under the belt. From there it was no looking back!

By the time he started school he was reading pretty nicely, so he darted into the advanced reading group. Naturally we were as pleased as punch. Things progressed fast and his reading really took off. I'm always amazed how many words he knows by sight - definitely far more than those that they are meant to know by the end of reception and even year 1 and 2 as far as I can tell - the rest he can easily work out with phonics. Here are a couple of certificates he got for the HFW (High Frequency Word) tests at school the other day. They seem rather insignificant because he actually knows hundreds of words, but he is ever so proud of them. The teacher whispered to me that she's going to have to raise the bar for 3 of her students!

I love that he can read most of the kiddie books that we used to read to him to us now. As a result, our bedtime reading routine has had to change. Now we choose one for Nick to read to us, Danny chooses one from the old stash and Nick chooses one of the chapter books. James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl and The Enchanted Wood by Enid Blyton are two of his favourites so far. I enjoy it when he begs for more because you can just see that he absolutely loves it!

Keep it up, Nicholas, I'm so proud of you!

You're my super duper star!