Reading -- check!

I've been meaning to post about Sofia learning to read in preschool for about a year but somehow (the same somehow responsible for a lot of things), I never got it done. She started reading little books at the end of last school year.

At first, it seemed to take a superhuman effort for her to muster the mental and physical concentration necessary to sit still and sound out each letter, then run the sounds together, and finally read a two- three- or four- letter word. It was almost painful to experience. I wondered how she would ever get passed this point. What if she had ADHD or something. Simultaneously, I discovered that even though I may be able to reach myself how to do a lot of things in life from sewing to computer programming, teaching a preschooler to read was like trying to teach a dog to talk. This is perhaps the first thing I've tried to do that I am simply horrible at. There went my brief fantastical thoughts of homeschooling.

Now, Sofia brings home a new book every week, reads it to us (or the dogs) about five times and takes it back to school at which point she receives a magnet (or mag-o-net as Marcelo would say) to place on her progress sheet. She is doing very well. I have no idea how she can do it. I guess that's why we pay the Challenger people to teach her. And, I am so proud of her. Now if they could just teach her how not to knock people over or break their noses when hugging them, I would really appreciate it.

Since she didn't make the lottery for the charter school by our house, I've registered her for Kindergarten at the public school. I hope she will do as well there as she has at Challenger.