This is "Whiskers"
When Nate was in Kindergarten he earned a silver medal - reading is not Nate's first choice of things to do, but he did it. By the time first grade rolled around he realized that getting a gold medal was much more exciting & we pulled it off with a few minutes to spare. This year was a different story all together. I had been working with Nate on a book on how to teach you child to read - to reinforce what was going on at school. Reading is very common a struggle with people who have ADHD (like Nate) since it takes so much "focus" to decode the words, so extra reading help has been the order of the day for him for some time now. ANYWAY..... we promised both Nate & Abbie that if they would finish all the reading lessons (there are 100) that they could earn a family trip for 2 days/1 night to Great Wolf Lodge (more on that in my next post). Since Nate is older & I had been working with him in the book longer he is now finished. Towards the end he was mastering 2 lessons at a time - a HUGE accomplishment for him. He spent at least 30 minutes on reading lessons at least 5 days a week, plus whatever reading homework he had plus daily bed time reading - he racked up the minutes in record time for him & the best part of all he was doing almost all of the reading on his own! No books on tape, and very little of us reading to him (during this time we split bed time reading with he would read a page we would read a page), he was even choosing to read to the girls! It was a major accomplishment for him - not sure I can express how proud I was of him & the growth he's made in choosing to read. So heading into week 4 Nate only had to read 55 minutes the whole week - but he didn't he kept up his reading level the entire time of the Reading Olympics - he ended up with over 250 extra minutes! And he earned his trip to Great Wolf Lodge!
Nate getting/admiring his newest gold medal.
Abbie also did her part. She didn't end up with as many extra reading minutes as Nate did, she had closer to 100 extra, but she too earned a gold medal. She was so proud of herself - waiting for the awards assembly was sheer torture for her. She read her minutes, she was ready for her medal - NOW! We did a lot of reading to Abbie but she did her part by doing 1 reading lesson a day plus her reading homework - but since her lesson/homework took much less time than Nate's we did a lot of reading to her, but that's just fine with us (also no books on tape/CD for her - we made sure we sat & read together - for all of our minutes). In fact I kinda wonder if that's what has influenced Kassie's recent LOVE of all things book/reading - it's her "toy" of choice the last couple of weeks. We spent so much time reading that I'm thinking it caught on for her too, I'm not really sure if that's what happened but it's cool none the less. Abbie is looking forward to earning her trip to Great Wolf Lodge for finishing the reading lessons, but without the pressure of Reading Olympics we haven't been as diligent in doing lessons everyday - but she'll get there & we'll go play & celebrate once again!
Abbie checking out her first gold medal!
The day of the Reading Olympics Medal Assembly was "fancy dress" day at school. Nate wanted to wear his suit - I didn't want his suit at school so we compromised - a button down shirt & a pair of church dress pants, he decided that was acceptable. I knew that if I let him wear it all (white shirt, tie, & brand new dress shoes) that they would never again be in church condition, so I was glad he was willing to meet me half way. Abbie was another story - she just had to wear a dress. She has a few skirts that she wears to school but they weren't good enough she wanted a dress, all her dresses are fancy church dresses so this was not as easy a compromise to make. I finally decided that she could wear a dress but I got to choose which one. That was ok with her as long as she got to wear her church shoes. GRRRR oh ok. She was fine with the dress I chose & I didn't my best to look past the now completely scuffed toes of her shoes when she came home. But since she usually gets new shoes to go with her Easter dress so these won't have to last much longer. Which is a good thing since they are so loved/worn that her toes could pop through at any minute - just a couple more weeks to go!
Fancy Dress Day Attire
I am grateful/proud to be a mom of 2 gold medal children. I'm grateful for the effort & determination they both put into earning their gold medals. (Now if I could just figure out a way to get them that motivated to keep their stuff picked up I'd have it made!)
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