The Wonder Basket

On Easter this year, I was both sad and thankful at the same time.  I was heartbroken because my aunt had to have surgery, which prevented her from coming to our normal Easter brunch, and my mom was in a car accident on Holy Thursday!  I was grateful, however, because despite the seriousness of the surgery and the car accident, both of them are okay and recovering.  Oddly, my mom didn't feel too much pain on Easter (which was just two days after the accident), but the pain did flare up about six days later.  She's been home recuperating, which will, unfortunately, take some time.

This year the Easter Bunny must have had mental telepathy because he created a Wonder basket.  Only a few days earlier, we finished reading the book, and now Lewie received two companion books and the movie.  His Easter basket, of course, had some chocolate treats and two Roblox gift cards, too, but the theme of this Easter was definitely Wonder.

The Easter Bunny pulled an April Fools' Day prank and hid the eggs over Grammy's house this year.

Overjoyed!

We're still waiting for the perfect time to watch this movie.  We want to give it our full attention.

So thankful my mom was with us to celebrate our annual Easter Brunch.

This Easter may have been "different" from the norm, but we still enjoyed a lovely time celebrating with our small family.  Lewie, of course, has started reading Auggie and Me and 365 Days of Wonder.  I'm so glad this Easter will go down as one that reminds us to love, appreciate, celebrate, and "choose kind." 

Wonder - #ChooseKind

Last December, a favorite blogger of mine, Lisa from Two Bears Farm, wrote about the book and movie, Wonder by R.J. Palacio.  I wanted to see the movie when it first came out, but until I read her blog post about Wonder, it never occurred to me that Lewie would be old enough to read the book.

Since I was hooked on the message of kindness and compassion that the story promotes, I made it our mission to read the book.  Shortly after Valentine's Day, I told Lewie we would begin reading Wonder for his twenty minute reading homework every night.  When I made the request, his face lit up:  "Mommy, my teacher is reading the book to us in class."

"She is?" I replied.

"Yes she is, but we're still at the beginning."

Once I found out the book was being read in class, we made a mad dash to read it first.  It didn't take long before we surpassed the class and then read the full 300+ pages.  Admittedly, we didn't read the book every night.   Sometimes we were sidetracked by Lewie's swim lessons, Cub Scouts events, and his history fair project, but we did manage to read 60+ pages each week.

As we took turns reading the book aloud to each other, we stopped many times to process the thoughts, actions, and emotions of each character.  Lewie immediately identified with the main character of the book, August or Auggie.  The ten-year old boy loves Star Wars, his Xbox, and his sweet dog, Daisy.  (Plus, Lewie is born in "August," so he found yet another reason to like the character.)  We learn about August's "facial difference" early on and worry (right along with him and his parents) about how he will fend going to school for his very first time.

Without telling too much of the story, we learn that fifth-graders (along with their parents) can be mean and insecure, but they also can be kind, loyal, protective, nurturing, and thoughtful.  The book tells the story from August's perspective, but in-between, it also tells August's story from the perspectives of his sister Via; his good friends, Jack and Summer; his sister's boyfriend, Justin; and his sister's best friend, Miranda.  It's during these character shifts that we learn about the inside feelings of these other characters, too, and why they act or react in certain ways.

Lewie didn't want the book to end.  As we finished reading the last page, he told me tearfully that Wonder was the best book he ever read in his whole entire life  He reminded me that The Polar Express was a close second.  (Of course, in between these two books have been many other favorites, such as the entire Magic Tree House series by Mary Pope Osborne and all the Elephant and Piggie Books by Mo Willems.)

Now, this week, our treat will be to watch Wonder the movie.  I told him that rarely are movies just as good as the books themselves, but I would be lying if I pretended not to be excited about seeing the movie.  Consequently, we also learned that R.J. Palacio has written a companion book to Wonder called, Auggie & Me: Three Wonder Stories.  It's already on Lewie's wish list.

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.)