Word Girl

Isabel is rarely found these days without a notebook or paper and a large collection of writing utensils in hand. Her life revolves around words - writing them, reading them, spelling them, saying them. She can't get enough.

As such, it comes as no surprise that she has started reading. Reading! She has a strong command of phonetics and can sound out many words, although she remains largely limited to words with short vowel sounds for now. We are working on the long vowel-silent "e" combination, it's a much trickier concept to grasp.

She watches with envy as Connor does his nightly homework, and asks me to give her homework of her own to do. The other day she wanted a spelling test, so I dictated about 12 or 15 words to her, and she wrote each one correctly with the exception of "stop," wherein she got a bit ahead of herself and transposed the "o" and "p." So we have moved on to sentences, and she can write entire sentences correctly. On her own the other day she wrote, "the cat is in the home," with no resources for help other than her mind. I asked her how she knew the word home, and she told me because of the sign I have in our entryway that says "home. " Very resourceful.

We have been working on a list of 40 sight words that the kindergarten teachers here focus on, and she has mastered many of these, and is working on the rest. And I have to stress - I do not force her in any way to do any of these, only help her along as she is motivated to do. But she wants it all! I am merely keeping up.

It is nothing short of magic when a child learns to read. Doors are unlocked, things are learned, imaginations are expanded. Literacy makes my heart happy. When we are out and about she can pick out words everywhere and read them. It makes her so happy.

I recently finished re-reading A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. I first read it almost 5 years ago, and just finished it for book club. I had forgotten how much I adore this book. So glad to have re-read it. I especially love the way it extols the benefits of education and literacy. One of my (many) favorite passages is when the main character Francie has learned to read:

"Oh, magic hour when a child first knows it can read printed words!
For quite a while, Francie had been spelling out letters, sounding them and then putting the sounds together to mean a word. But one day, she looked at a page and the word "mouse" had instantaneous meaning. She looked at the word, and the picture of a gray mouse scampered through her mind. She looked further and when she saw "horse," she heard him pawing the ground and saw the sun glint on his glossy coat. The word "running" hit her suddenly and she breathed hard as though running herself. The barrier between the individual sound of each letter and the whole meaning of the word was removed and the printed word meant a thing at one quick glance. She read a few pages rapidly and almost became ill with excitement. She wanted to shout it out. She could read! She could read!"

I see this same joy on Isabel's face frequently as she crosses the threshold from recognizing letters, to recognizing words and their meaning. She beams! It truly is a magic moment each time.

I shouldn't be surprised she can read and write so well at the age of 4. She has always been a word girl. When she was 18 months she came along with Connor and I to an appointment at Children's, wherein Connor was being evaluated by a team that included a developmental pediatrician, child psychologist, speech therapist and occupational therapist. They kept commenting on Isabel's speaking ability, asking me if I knew how exceptionally well she spoke for an 18-month-old. I really didn't, because Connor didn't speak at all at that age.

It's difficult to believe that she doesn't start kindergarten for more than a year, August of 2011. Our cut-0ff for kindergarten is age 5 by Oct. 1, and she will turn 5 this year on Oct. 11. So she just misses it. A new law allows those children just on the other side of the cut-off to test in and, if they qualify, to start kindergarten early. I flirted with the idea of having her tested, and ultimately decided against it. So she will do one more year of preschool, and start kindergarten the following fall when she is scheduled to do so. I think down the road it will be the right decision.

When I was in high school I became trained as a literary tutor, although it wasn't until I had graduated from college that I actually volunteered as a tutor. I was 23 and tutored a 32-year-old father of 5 who had a 3rd-grade reading ability. It broke my heart to see his literary struggles, but it also was so rewarding to see him better grasp and apply language in his life. To say it makes a huge difference when one is literate is a gigantic understatement.

Forgive my rambling, but I love words. I love that my children love words. Connor is in the top reading group in his class, and Lucas has always adored books and being read to, and knows most of his letters. Seeing them excel in reading and writing is pure joy to me as a mom. To fully describe it, there really are no words.