Pros and Cons of Literacy

My son Phoenix has learned to read. This is a great thing. As you know, I am an avid reader, and I so want my boys to enjoy reading. (Although getting him to read a BOOK is still like bamboo shoots under the fingernails for him...).

I love watching him find words on things around the house, and listening to him sound them out letter by letter, and then seeing the triumphant look on his face when he shouts out the word correctly. I remember that feeling; the joy of discovery! A new world out there to explore.

Then there are the words you don't want him to read. Like brick wall graffiti... "What does FFFFFF uuuuuuuuuuuu CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC kkkkkkkk, FUCK mean, Mom?" That sort of thing.

I remember going up to my mom and saying to her, "What does naked (pronouncing it like caked) mean?" "Oh, you mean naked...where did you see that word?" "Right here in the paper. "5 year old boy's body found naked under the overpass". What's an overpass?" And being puzzled as my mom grabbed the Toronto Sun out of my grasp and handed me a Curious George book to practice my reading on instead.

Now I understand. A whole new era, of trying to protect your kids for as long as you can from the evils of the world, now only in written form. God help me if he ever discovers this BLOG!

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In other news, I took Keegs yesterday for a speech reassessment. He did very well. He does still have some obvious receptive language issues (he still doesn't understand how or why questions, for example) but in other areas he has improved remarkably since his first assessment back in April of 2006. I will update on his actual results when they get sent to me, but his speech pathologist seemed very happy with his progress to date, as am I.

I am taking Ty back to the allergist next week to get tested for the MMR vaccine to see if he reacts to the amount of egg protein in it. On Friday, Mark and I have to meet with the psychologist who will be administering Keegan's psycho-educational assessment test. We have been told that our meeting with her will be about 1 1/2 hours, and that's just to give background information about him since he took his first breath. I did write milestones down, but kripes, some of the things I'm supposed to remember are crazy. When did he first reach for an object? Hell if I know. If you know these things about your own kids, congratu-freakin-lations!

The week after that, I am finally going to see a dermatolgist about my creepy hands. Which will probably result in another $300000000000 in prescription charges that my piece of crap medical insurance won't cover, as usual. Bloody Blue Cross!

Just finished reading a great book. It's called "Bloodletting and other Miraculous Cures" by Vincent Lam. He won the Giller Prize for this book, and deserved it. It was a really good read. Right now I'm reading "Lullabies for Little Criminals" by Heather O'Neill. It's great so far too.

In a moment of childhood nostalgia, I decided that I wanted to read all of the Laura Ingalls Wilder books. I had read Little House In the Big Woods and Little House on the Prarie when I was about 8 or 9, but hadn't realized how many others there were. And since we are on season 6 of watching the tv show, I wanted to read them all. These books are great for all ages, but I would definitely recommend that you buy this series for your daughter if you are blessed with one. Nice wholesome reading, and full of interesting pioneer knowledge.

Well, that's it for book corner. Time to put the kiddies to bed.

Nighty-night.