reading beyond his years

we were lucky that "I" taught himself how to read when he was about three....yes three. i was really amazed when a little before he was three we were at good ol' wally world grocery shopping when i stopped in an aisle looking for something on the shelves (can't remember what) and "I"pointed and said "that says jack on it". i was very confused because i had no idea what he was talking about. i looked at the products and realized that yes indeed it did say "jack" (it was a box of hungry jack potatoes). i was amazed that he knew that.

i remember sitting in nursery one day when "I" was only a little over 18 months. he was in there playing and singing the alphabet. one of the other moms was amazed that he not only did he know the song but he could tell you what sound every letter makes. at that point i didn't realize that that wasn't normal. also at this age he could count and recognize the numbers 1 to 20. i learned this one day when we were at target and he told me every number at the registers as we walked by them.

people would and will ask us all the time "what is your secret?" and we would and still do respond with "he was just lucky enough to be born this way." we don't and never have sat down with him and drill it into his head. he just has an amazing memory and can remember pretty much anything he wants to.

when "I" was in his first year of preschool his teacher was amazed at how well he read for a 3 year old. she learned about his reading abilities when she held up a poster or something to show the kids a pictures and "I" read all the words that were on it. she was stunned because most of the kids couldn't even recognize their own name and her is "I" telling her what the picture said.

one more story.....on "I"'s first week of being a sunbeam (the 3 year old class) at church the primary president was doing sharing time and put up a word strip with the word "resurrection" on it. she then asked the kids what it said. "I" was the first to answer. she was amazed that a sunbeam knew what it said. we were pretty amazed too.

this boy of ours amazes us everyday with his reading and memory abilities. as he started kindergarten this school year i was curious as to what level he reads on. i thought for sure he was at a first or second grade level. we have been reading chapter books together for awhile and he does just fine with those. recently his teacher gave everyone in the class a reading test to see where they were at and to see if they were up to being in an accelerated reading program. "I" definitely qualified for that because according the test he reads at a fourth grade level. i was somewhat amazed....i mean i knew he read good but to be only 5 and reading at a fourth grade level, that's pretty amazing isn't it??? well at least we think so. now the challenge is to find things for him to read that keep his interest and challenges him because lately if if doesn't have anything to do with Harry Potter, Indiana Jones, Batman, or Legos he wants nothing to do with it.