It seemed as if one day he couldn’t read at all and the next day he could read anything you put in front of him. James picked up his reading skills very rapidly. It was a similar thing with Emily. I remember being amazed at how she suddenly started reading signs on the side of the road and labels on items at home. Part of their love of reading probably comes from the fact that we would read to both kids each day from a very young age. In fact, even though they are now both accomplished readers, we still do read with them.
Over the past week or so both Emily and James have been practicing for their school reading competition. Both were picked in the top 5 of their class and yesterday it was finals time. They had to read to a panel of three judges.
Being in Year One, James was first up. Sometime later it was time for Emily and the other Year Fours.
One of the big things that I kept saying to both of them was that they were to work hard with their practicing and then just do their best. I wanted them to know that while God has given them both some great talents, talent alone wouldn’t help them get across the line if they didn’t work at the pieces they had chosen to read. It’s a life lesson that I want them to learn very early.
They practiced over and over to get the right expression and to get to the level they needed to reach. I assured each of them that whether they won or not didn’t matter as much as whether they had put in a good effort. Whatever the result I was going to be proud of them because I had seen the work they’d put in leading up to the judging.
Of course I must say, that it didn’t make me any less proud when I heard that both of them won their year levels.
Now I just have to work out the best way to take off early on Friday so that I can see them both read in front of the whole school and receive their awards at the school assembly.
Posted by Rodney Olsen
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Congratulations to the pair of them! Do you think they’d like to come to my office and read some stuff here? I certainly don’t want to do it.
Congrats to them!!!
At what age did they start to read?
You proud father you!!
hey rodney
thanks for the birthday wishes
i wonder if you remember that we met a few times in Perth, west australia – Baptist youth camp in serpentine, i think.
you were the loudmouth and i think you worked at a radion station?
Congratulations to them both, and mom and dad!
That’s great that both of your kids are readers. I don’t understand people who don’t enjoy reading, and most likely they weren’t read to as children. I hope you get off work early on Friday!
As an ex teacher… congrats to THE FAMILY. Hey, they can cycle and read! How good is that. If they can swim, that makes the trifecta in my book!
Maybe they might become news readers one day…? 🙂 If Rick and Sue ever retire or stop working so well together on Channel 7, who knows… 🙂
Emily and James might even end up working together on the news desk. I do believe that Emily has read the news with Rick Ardon… 😉
LOL