A Little Humor Goes a Long Way...Especially with Reading...

At the beginning of first grade, I was saddened to learn that Lewie was behind in his reading; his teacher recommended reading intervention, which they called Tier III Reading Services.  We agreed to Lewie receiving the extra help, but I then made it my mission to help Lewie with his reading on my own too.   We made frequent trips to the library, aimed for reading one book per day, and then created flashcards to practice our site words.

This summer, we have continued our reading practice.  Lewie has joined a summer reading class that meets on Saturday mornings, and we often have homework, which is meant to practice reading confidence and fluency.  We also continue visiting the library, with the goal of reading a book per day.

This summer, I'm proud to announce that Lewie is moving on to Level 2 readers, which fits his appropriate grade level.  Still, he also likes to choose his "old reliable" books, which have become his favorite.  While my son does love books about Minecraft and trains, his very favorite books this year have been by Mo Willems.

My son took his very first Mo Willems's book home from the school library in September:  The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog.  After Lewie renewed it several times, I finally encouraged him to bring home a new Pigeon book.  The next book was Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus followed by Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late.

                                

Since then, Lewie has become a huge fan of Mo Willems's Elephant and Piggy Series as well.  We couldn't get enough of reading all 25 books this year, and we're still taking them out because they make us laugh.  Two of my personal favorites are A Big Guy Took My Ball and I Really Like Slop.

                                        

I have to say that getting Lewie interested in reading this year was a struggle, but once he found Mo Willems's books, his attitude has changed.  Now he loves going to the library, especially to find these books to read them over and over again.  If you have a struggling reader at home in kindergarten and first grade, then I highly suggest taking out some of these books.  You may just reignite your own interest in reading and laughing again.   (I haven't laughed at books since reading Shel Silverstein's A Light in the Attic, Jim Davis's Garfield Cartoon Books, and Judy Blume's Are You There God?  It's Me Margaret.)