Reader Ryan

Ryan started reading this week! Unbelievable! I had no idea he had it in him! Aaron read really early - starting the second month of Pre-K... and here's Ryan - Reading nine months before Pre-K even starts. Crazy.

For a couple weeks now Ryan has been telling me he could read. He knows it's a big deal that Aaron reads, so I just pat his head and say, "Of course you can, honey."

Well, I'm a bad mom. He really can read. And here I thought he didn't know his letter sounds, and especially what the lower-case letters look like. In actuality he knows both. And he can put those letters and sounds together to make words.

I think Ryan is like my sister was when she was little. She never wanted to TRY and she never wanted to FAIL, so she would just not know anything until she knew everything. Same with Ryan. I tried so hard to teach him his colors as a toddler. He would shake his head, say "I don't know" and even say "I'm too little." I was really starting to worry about how phenomenally uninterested he was in learning his colors. And then, he woke up one morning and knew them all perfectly. There was no in between.

This year, I was thinking that it was surprising Ryan wasn't writing his name yet, when many kids are by this age. He wouldn't even try. Didn't have any interest, whatsoever. And then, he woke up one morning, and not only could he write his name, but he could write the entire alphabet. It's almost like he's secretive about learning stuff, and he doesn't want people to even know he's trying to learn stuff until it's good and learned.

The bad news is that Ryan still has a year and a half until Kindergarten. If there's one thing I've learned this year with Aaron it's that having an advanced child in the public school system sucks - at least in the very early years. I was shocked how much work and time it took to get Aaron's needs met, and get him work at his level.

So, I'd made up my mind with Ryan - please stop counting to 100 - you will have to relearn how to count to 10 when you get to Kindergarten. I don't care if you don't learn another cognitive thing in preschool - it will just make life harder and more boring when you get to Kindergarten.

And here he is learning to read behind my back. How dare he? I'll bet he's secretly been learning this whole time that Aaron's been learning. He, of course, was never going to tell me until he could do it well. I wonder what else he's secretly learning right now?