Bagel gets a library card as we all learn to read!

In our house turning five years old means your very own library card. So it was Bagel's time! We headed to the library on Thursday afternoon. Our chores were finished and the heat meant we were looking for an indoor activity. We are not doing much school work over the summer but have decided to declare July 2009 the month everyone learns to read. Lofty goal for a house full of dyslexic learners. The older bunch is all reading now. They need to practice to get to their age level but have crossed major hurdles this past year. I am so proud of them.
Bagel is so excited and Moogie is there to help her sign her name in the box. Now it is time to work intensely with the next set of future readers. Moogie is trying her hardest and has many residual developmental issues that slow her down. She is the most determined young woman I know. The work we have planned this month will do the trick. I am positive. We plan to make several visits to the library each week as our knowledge grows.

Pickle and Princess are ready to read. In fact with the basic work we started on yesterday they are already taking off. I know we held them back to a degree just to work with the older ones. Not any more. Their time has come. Goobers, Bear and Sugar all struggled to learn to read. That has them in a wonderful position to help me to train the next ones. We are working every day with a list of sight words combined with a study of phonics. I think that the combination is the key to helping the dyslexic grow their confidence in the reading process. Phonics only will not work with a dyslexic. I plan to post more about this on the homeschooling blog later this month. For now just say a pray for us that the month of July helps us turn a corner in our home school journey.
Bagel was thrilled to get the card until the pressure to sign in the box was upon her. She crumbled. Poor girl is a perfectionist and wanted to stop right there. Pickle wouldn't let her. Please don't hold it against her that she used a Sharpie to sign. It was all the librarian had and Pickle admonished her.
"She can't use that pen!" Pickle informed the librarians.
"What a card he is!" She replied.
"No she CAN'T use a Sharpie, they are not good pens anyway!" Pickle proclaimed.
I then had to calm Bagel down and told her that her father would forgive her if she just wrote her name in the box. We would make it a point to bring a permanent marker from BIC the next time we came to the library. I then had to explain that dad works for BIC and that we try to never use the competitors pens. All this while a crowd formed around us. Some had questions for the librarian others just asked why Bagel was crying. Other over heard the conversation about 9 children and wanted to know if it was true or not.
Finally we made it back to the books. All was good until Bagel tried to get a 1000 page book that had zero pictures. I told her that I wouldn't have time to read that book in the next few weeks. She needed to practice her reading and she could get it at the end of the month, after she mastered reading the level 1 reading books. Cries came again. That would be tolerable if they were the only ones but Jumba through a few out himself when we tried to leave. Bagel calmed down as Goobers helped her to use the self check out. It is pretty cool when you can do it all yourself. One of the easy readers would not work. Great another fit.

After a visit with the Librarian we fixed the issue and Bagel was ready to go. She wasn't happy about the book choices we made for her but ready to go non the less. Jumba ran out the door and Sugar followed. AS the rest of us went out the alarm went off. I through the keys to Sugar and the strapped the baby in. The rest of us sorted our books and still don't know what set off the alarm. Just a little more excitement for Bagel's first official library visit.



I only hope that the future visits are not this much fun. We might have to give up the library if this happens every time. Oh well, all was forgotten when we got home and started reading our new books.