sweet success!! Nate is GREAT!

My son has hated reading for - well his life. We had hoped to help that when we started homeschooling...NOT because he didn't have wonderful teachers who promoted reading, but because he wasn't as exhausted and being made to after working at school and trying to squeeze it into homework time, before bed and after dinner.
But he has maintained his dislike and fought us in reading. Mostly because he did not have confidence in ability.
We have, this school year incorporated some amount of reading into just about every single lesson, but not in a way he has recognized it as reading. Although each school day we do a min of 20 min. of Sustained Silent Reading, and each day we read several chapters of literature to them.
But also when hubby does his devotional times with them he is dividing up the reading so each of us has a few verses to read out loud. He prints off the verses on his computer and highlights the difficult words in that days reading and we go over them and discuss the meanings and sound them out before we start reading. This way the kids understand more what they are reading and John Mark inparticular can read outloud with more confidence.
When we do our grammar I write sentences on the flip chart and have them read them. Even our math incorporates word problems so we are reading....lots of reading....and John Mark so has the ability he just has not trusted his ability when it comes to sitting down with a book and READING....

UNTIL..............Yesterday!!!! This day needs to go down in history. I'm so excited. Yesterday as always I battled with him to pick a book for SSR time. I finally picked one for him...he wasn't too pleased with me and moped...ugh....
But that is what he does at SSR time, dawdles and dallies and tries to procrastinate thinking if he does that long enough he won't have to read...ugh!! SO I chose for him a Nate the Great book.


He begrudgingly started reading the book, and guess what...he LIKED it!! And then read longer than required. And after dinner I turn around and he and MaryKyle are each laying on a couch....READING! And then this morning when he woke up and crawled out of bed and went directly to the bathroom as always...he had the Nate the Great book in his hand and was so proud of himself when he FINISHED IT a little bit later!!!

So guess where we are going in a bit (at HIS request) to the library for more Nate the Great books!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hubby and I could not be any more thrilled!