Those Gorgeous Eyes

Twig has been an avid reader since he was a baby. We started with "The Very Hungry Caterpillar", "When Hippos Go Berserk" and other fantastic board book titles when he was just 4 or 5 months old and haven't stopped.

He's always relished the evening time when we lay down together and enter another place and time. It's a chance to connect on a different level than when preparing for or completing the day. There's argument only because he wants us to continue on.

He started reading early. Before kindergarten, maybe at 4 years old actually and enjoyed reading those board books for a minute or two. Nothing, it would seem, compared to Mom or Dad reading aloud. To the tune of Wood read the entire Harry Potter series to him in 9 months about a year ago. It was an impressive pace, that's for sure.

During first grade, and this year for sure, the independent reading activities he's required to do as homework has been quite a battle. He refuses to do the 20 minutes without serious consequences. It is impacted by the fact that he hates his teacher and she certainly doesn't like him (but that's another post I don't have time for right now) but it has been a bit of a head scratcher for us.

Technology is one of those things that he's always up for so I got the brilliant idea to offer up my kindle a few weeks ago. He was excited to read and did so for a couple of minutes when suddenly he began to complain that it was hard to read the words. I thought it a bit strange but changed the font size for him and do you know what happened? That child read Harry Potter for more than an hour without complaint - two days in a row!

I mentioned to Twig that he could need glasses, given our experiment and his newfound love of reading (was it the kindle or his eyes, I wondered aloud). His teacher reportedly told him that the thought of him needing glasses was "just an excuse". Needless to say I took him to the optometrist as soon as possible. It was unfortunate that it couldn't happen before our parent teacher conference that was moved up a week because of his problems with the teacher, but I digress.

The boy is nearsighted; while his prescription is slight, and the doctor said optional, glasses will help him to see things close up. He chose blue frames to match mine. Aww, that's so sweet!

I'm excited for the world that will be opened up for him by less struggle and strain to do close up work. And even more excited to toss the "excuse" in the teachers face come the Parent Teacher Conference this Thursday.