And she’s reading!

Yesterday I received Lili’s beginning readers books and this morning we began working on them.  After about 20 minutes of working in her workbook we pulled out her reading books.  There I sat, across the table from her.  She looked at the title of the book and said, “Mat.”  I kept my composure.  She turned to the first page and read, “Mat.”  I continued to keep my composure.  On the second page she read “Mat Sat.”  Then on the third page she read, “Sam.”  At this point my composure was wavering and then she read the fourth page, “Sam sat”, then the fifth, “Mat sat. Sam sat.”  At this point my composure went out the window and I said, “LILI, YOU’RE READING.”  Her smile was brighter than the sun as she giggled and responded, “YEAH!  I’M SO PROUD OF MYSELF.”  She continued to the end of the book and read each page with ‘very little’ help from me.

After some big high-5’s I had her read it a second time and half-way thru the book I began to tear up.  Truth be told, I really wasn’t sure about the home schooling thing.  I had tons of questions and the biggest question was whether or not I could do this, but as I sat there listening to her read her first book I realized that my little girl is growing up fast.  I realized that by home schooling her I was not missing out on another milestone in her life.  It wasn’t a teacher experiencing the thrill of hearing her read for the first time (but what a joy it must be to hear so many children read for the first time), it as me.  I was so very proud of her.  I was really happy that I decided to home school and for today, the doubts and concerns were washed away and I knew I could do this.  I knew we could do this together.