Shameless Proud Mama Bragging Moment
My son just finished reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.
*basks*
Not bad, for six and a half. I told him a long time ago that in order to watch a Harry Potter movie, he had to read the book first. Last year I tried reading the book aloud to him, but that ended in frustration with about a third of the first chapter completed. He just couldn't pay attention, and had a hard time getting past why the story was about Harry at the Dursley's, and not about Hogwarts.
Sometime this Spring he saw some girls on his school bus reading Harry Potter, and decided he would do the same. I didn't think he would actually do it, but more often than not he got off the bus carrying the book, his bookmark a couple pages farther along each time. The library summer reading program helped spur him further as he insisted (in the beginning) on reading for 30 minute stretches at a time (he has finally accepted that he can read 15 minutes here, 15 minutes there, and still color in a square to get him to his goal). Most recently he has been reading it before bed with his dad.
I know that there are broader concepts he didn't quite understand, and he struggled with Hagrid's style of speaking. I was a little worried about the dead unicorn in the Forbidden Forest, but he took it in stride. He likes to study the chapter titles and try to figure out what is going to happen next based on them (Maybe other people do this as well, I hardly ever pay attention to them. The one time I did, when reading The Amber Spyglass -I think it was the chapter Lyra and her Death - and I was kind of pissed off and anxious until I got to the chapter and realized the title wasn't a huge plot spoiler).
We took turns this morning reading the last chapter out loud. I had to stop and take a drink of coffee and compose myself when I got to Neville and his well-earned house points and how much he blossoms in the series. I felt a little stab of sadness every time I read about a character that won't be there by the end of book seven. I wonder how he will deal with those deaths. Fortunately he has several hundred pages ahead of him before the first one.
This weekend, the movie!
*basks*
Not bad, for six and a half. I told him a long time ago that in order to watch a Harry Potter movie, he had to read the book first. Last year I tried reading the book aloud to him, but that ended in frustration with about a third of the first chapter completed. He just couldn't pay attention, and had a hard time getting past why the story was about Harry at the Dursley's, and not about Hogwarts.
Sometime this Spring he saw some girls on his school bus reading Harry Potter, and decided he would do the same. I didn't think he would actually do it, but more often than not he got off the bus carrying the book, his bookmark a couple pages farther along each time. The library summer reading program helped spur him further as he insisted (in the beginning) on reading for 30 minute stretches at a time (he has finally accepted that he can read 15 minutes here, 15 minutes there, and still color in a square to get him to his goal). Most recently he has been reading it before bed with his dad.
I know that there are broader concepts he didn't quite understand, and he struggled with Hagrid's style of speaking. I was a little worried about the dead unicorn in the Forbidden Forest, but he took it in stride. He likes to study the chapter titles and try to figure out what is going to happen next based on them (Maybe other people do this as well, I hardly ever pay attention to them. The one time I did, when reading The Amber Spyglass -I think it was the chapter Lyra and her Death - and I was kind of pissed off and anxious until I got to the chapter and realized the title wasn't a huge plot spoiler).
We took turns this morning reading the last chapter out loud. I had to stop and take a drink of coffee and compose myself when I got to Neville and his well-earned house points and how much he blossoms in the series. I felt a little stab of sadness every time I read about a character that won't be there by the end of book seven. I wonder how he will deal with those deaths. Fortunately he has several hundred pages ahead of him before the first one.
This weekend, the movie!