Pig Wig and the Pleasure of Reading

My 5-year-old is learning to read.  We're still a long way from War and Peace, but as a parent, teacher, and librarian, I'm thrilled to watch this process unfold. I studied reading methodology in college: learning the language, memorizing books, the "a-ha" moment when the brain decodes a word in an unfamiliar context.  It's much more fascinating in person.


I remember when he'd sit down with a book and "read" it to himself, using the same inflection that I used on each page.  I wish I could have recorded some of these moments, but he would have stopped if he knew I was watching.


Last summer we discovered a series of books by Yukiko Kido and Harriet Ziefert.  He's read Pig Wig and Stop Pop. They're simple--3 sections of word families, 1 word on a page, and short sentences at the end of each section.  Today I found Snow Bow at the downtown library.  It was waiting in his car seat when I picked him up from school.  I love hearing him sound out the letters and puzzle through the complexities of consonant blends.  Each word read is a little victory;  a sentence like "Feet meet on the street," a triumph.


He already knows the pleasure of listening to a good story being read or told.  Someday he'll have the pleasure of getting lost in a really good book.  His journey is just beginning.