Joel can "read"

Joel loves books!  He always has loved books, but lately he has been wanting to “read” us books.  He has several memorized and he will run up to you and say “I want read book to you.”  We discovered it when he wanted to read us Person Penguin.  Not only did he know almost the whole book word for word, but he turns the page at the appropriate time and only says the words that are on that page.  We have read that book a lot since we got it 5 years ago, so I thought it was cool but I wasn’t super impressed. 

Then Grandma Dawn and Vincent picked out a book for Joel at the book fair that they knew Joel would like.  It is called Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons.  Joel was so excited!  They had not read that book in school since September (that I know of).  We read it to him a couple times and then he started insisting he read it to us.  He knew 90% of the words, did a great job reading, singing, and turning the page when he was supposed to.  Brad and I were astounded!

We love hearing him read and I am sure that before long he will be able to “read” more of his favorite books.  One of the perks is that sometimes Joel will read Cecilia books for me.  We are just so proud of Joel and all his hard work and the progress he is making.

We have videos of it but no pictures of him reading by himself.  I would upload the video but in the background you hear Vincent and Cecilia being very loud!