Writing

Last summer, Owen said he wanted to learn to read. So, we went out and got stuff - cards with beginning sounds and special paper for practicing letters, a workbook for practicing reading and writing skills and easy reading library books. I thought surely we'd hit on something that would fill the bill he'd given me. After trying a bit of all of them and then watching them gather dust, I realized that Owen didn't want to learn how to read - he wanted to know how to read. I mean who wouldn't want to know how to read? He just wasn't really ready to do the work of learning how to read, and a fed tries at it let us all know that.
And now, a year later, he has found his own way (of course) of starting down that path . He has picked up a bit of the alphabet and now asks for us to dictate spelling for him - mostly people's names but also things like cabbage - not sure where that one came from. A recent get well letter to his cousin Nathan who fell and needed stitches reads, "to Nathan from Owen (and) Caedmon." He was quite proud of his upside down w, and I tried not to smile when I explained that turning letters upside down just doesn't quite work.