Remember the Reading Challenge?

M1 completed his Reading Challenge today! For anyone who hasn't read that blog post, I refer you to this entry: http://oursunnyview.blogspot.com/2009/02/opgtr.html. M1 had challenged himself to finish that book by Spring Break, which starts on Monday (I was going to give him till Monday). He worked HARD to do this. There were days, especially when we were working on some of the two-syllable words that have odd sounds (try explaining words like 'ancient' to a kid who believes c says /k/ or /s/ and to whom the syllable 'an' is a word that does NOT have a long a sound), when I wasn't sure we'd make it. But every time I started worrying, he'd sit down and do four or five lessons in a day, and we'd be caught back up!

He insisted I take this picture today after he marked off the very last lesson.


Then he wanted to show off his reading skills for Daddy. This is the next-to-last lesson in the book. The only words that really tripped him up were 'extraterrestrial' and the 'cality' part of 'impracticality.' I couldn't have read this when I was 6!!!

Him, reading this to his Daddy...

And finally, I'm so proud of my lil' dude... here's him sounding out the very last word on the page. The camera didn't work the first time he sounded it out, when he realized that he KNEW the word already, so this is actually a second attempt, but still...

He definitely sounds precocious! I'm so proud of him. Of course, now I owe him a Mommy Day. His work has also already paid off. At his parent-teacher conference at school today, his teacher surprised me by telling me that she IS going to let him go to first-grade reading for the rest of the year after all. She said he's definitely reading at the same level as that class (just think... these kids are getting ready for second grade, and he's reading at their level!) and his comprehension is somewhere between third and fourth grade!
Totally having a bragging Mommy moment, but at the same time, I'm bragging on his hard work. It has definitely been its own reward.