Mommy Brag Moment

I can't help myself. I don't think you could either if you were in my shoes. So this is how it went down. Tonight I took Gabe to Family Reading Night at his school (Rob took Gideon and Zion to swim class as we started a new session tonight). The kids were invited to wear their PJs and bring a pillow and blanket. Gabe was thrilled - he LOVES to wear pajamas. First the Kindergarten through first or second graders met in the "pod" between their classrooms and they each got a bag with a book, egg-timer (the hourglass type, is this the right name for them when they're only a minute?) and a book mark. We got a chance to read together and then be read to, One Fish Two Fish. After that we went to the gym to have a piece of cake, it is after all Dr. Seuss' birthday. (Later, when we got home he told Rob that "even though it wasn't his favorite cherry [cake] it was still very good"). Then we went back to the "pod" and The Cat In The Hat (who looked suspiciously like a teacher in a costume) read us Green Eggs and Ham. Lastly we were told we could linger and read more or go to the library for a timed reading "game".

We lingered and read The Cat In The Hat together. I wanted to go but Gabe wanted to stay so we headed to the library. There they had some teen-aged girls at tables who had the kids read from sheets and counted the words they could read in one minute.

I told the first girl he was at a second grade level but she knew he was in Kindergarten so she had him read 1.4 (first grade, fourth month) instead. He read 84 words in one minute with one mistake. She was impressed. I thought we'd go but Gabe, being who he is, wanted to visit each table. I told the next gal to give him the fifth grade paper just to see how he would do but she asked Gabe what grade he was in and he laughed and said "I'm not in a grade! I'm in Kindergarten!" so she wouldn't do fifth grade. She did do fourth grade though and Gabe read 55 words in a minute about some type of fish that eats coral. That's right - FOURTH grade level!

Lastly, he visited the final table. I told him to just pick a paper that looked like it had an interesting story so he picked the panda story, which was 1.5 reading level. He read 96 words in a minute.

He really had no idea that what he did was unusual or special but I thought it was pretty cool.