Reading for Joy

One of our most quoted Josh-isms of late is, "I don't read for joy yet."

Reading has not come easily to him, and there has NEVER been a time where he happily consented to his reading lesson or chose to read on his own. It has always been accompanied by groans, moans, and negotiations regarding the length of the passage.

Until tonight.

It all started with a light bulb.... A few weeks ago we began a "small" task of switching the girls room and the school room. That is deserving of it's own post, so I won't go into details. However, it is important to note that the boys ended up with loft beds in their room, and I got them each clamp-on lamp for reading at night. The only problem was that I did not have the right light bulbs! Every night Josh would say, "MOM, don't forget light bulbs tomorrow!" In that moment, I would fully intend to purchase light bulbs the next day... But inevitably forget. This morning I remembered the light bulbs! Hooray!

After baseball, snacks, and showers, the boys were ready for bed. It was 2 full hours past bedtime. Josh rushed to his room, installed his light bulb, adjusted his lamp, and picked out a book. Weakly, I protested about the time, but I was willingly overruled. His eagerness to read a book quickly cancelled any reservations I had about the lateness of hour. We clambered onto the loft bed and began to read "When a bug went Kachoo," (or something like that) by the light of the clamp lamp.

"One or two pages," I thought to myself, "This will only take a minute." I have never been so happy to be mistaken! Josh continued to say, "Oh let's just read to this page... Then this page... And so on."

I finally got down from the loft bed to go visit with my mom, but I gave him permission to continue reading to Will for a little while. Excitedly, he kept plugging along, sounding out word after word, and even adding in some expression!

30 minutes later, Will stumbled out and asked if Josh could PLEASE stop reading now... If you only knew how much of a role reversal that is... Upon entering the room, I found descending his loft bed ladder, book tucked underneath his chin. With a grin, he informed me that he had read the entire thing.

"Josh!" I said, "You are reading for joy now!" He gave me a great big hug, told his daddy, and was in bed fast asleep before I could write the first paragraph of this blog post.