Rose and Reading

 

Rose is still not reading fluently. She is seven and a half and is making steady progress, but hasn't made the leap to fluency.

One of the things I have learned through years of homeschooling is that it is helpful to find books that the kids like.  Rose does like certain books, though she needs them read to her. She is particularly fond of Smurfs and Dog Man.

So Smurfs are fine EXCEPT that for reasons I CANNOT fathom, the Smurf books have tiny, tiny print.  My eyes are good for a woman of 52 years, but tiny print is not my friend.  I have trouble reading a lot of Smurfs to her without getting a headache.

Dog Man is better. They are graphic novel type books about a cop who has the head of a dog and the body of a man, because of an explosion which killed the body of the dog and the head of the man. So they sewed the head of the dog onto the man.

Hence, Dog Man.

Yes, it is silly and delightful.  There are themes of friendship, and growth. The print is big and I can read it to Rose easily. The stories have some easy words so I can point at certain words and have Rose sound them out. 

So all is well and beautiful EXCEPT that the author has included a lot of bathroom humor.  Some of it is egregious and annoying.  I don't want Rose singing about bodily functions like some of the main characters in Dog Man.  

So ... I bought seven books for Rose for Christmas, and went through them all with a black Sharpie and crossed out the offensive stuff.  Now I am sure some people are horrified by that, but hey, I don't want my seven year old singing about unpleasant things.  I don't.  And she probably would, because Rose is strong willed and a CHARACTER.  A glorious, wonderful, charming, amazing, energetic character, but not a mellow person, and she would enjoy singing annoying songs, I am sure of it.

She'll get there on reading.  She'll get there.