Learning Fun

Last night I was reading with Little John before bed. He picked five books to read including a little, simple book about cars that was a few short words on four or five pages. He and I have been working on our phonics and he's beginning to sound out words a few at the time now. He decided that he wanted to "read" the book himself and I showed him the word "car" and sounded it out for him. He finished "reading" and was telling me what color all the cars were in the book. He closed the book and looked at the cover, told me the car was red, then looked at the title for a second. You could literally see the little light bulb go on in his head as it hit him and he recognized the word. He said, "Car!" Of course, I made a big deal out of it and told him how excited I was that he could read that word. The look on his face was priceless. Pride, excitement, discovery all in that one expression. Those are the moments that make motherhood the most joyous job in the world to me. I love helping him to see all that it's possible to learn and to be a part of his delight in doing it. This hasn't been an easy week, but I think I'll keep my job. . . for a long, long time.