Voluntary

"What want to...? Of course! Sure!" I put my teeth back in my mouth, sat in my chair, and stared.

Andy asked if he could read the bedtime book tonight. He picked a chapter book. He read the entire first chapter, out loud. Himself. Alone. Voluntarily.

My son wants to read a book.

This may seem an odd thing to be jaw-dropping, when your child is ten years old, unless he is requesting to read War and Peace. Here, reading at home has been a never-ending struggle at pulling teeth, for both of my guys. Joey reads very well, and he will gladly read dictionaries all night long, but getting to voluntarily read anything else at home is Mission: Impossible. Andy loves books, but never likes reading them. It takes too much energy. He had a vision problem that stalled his reading with confidence. He is still shaky for ten, and I suspect there may be other issues. The book he picked is a Star Wars chapter book, geared to elementary readers, with large type.

But holy cow, people, he asked to read it. He read the whole first chapter. By himself.

A month ago, asking him to read a book might result in a sobbing, screaming child in a fetal position on the floor. Now he is asking to read a book!

I am so proud of my little squirrel.