Diana Ross

I just wanted to take a minute to brag about my girl! If you are on facebook, then you have already heard that SHE IS READING!! She has been doing so great in school! She loves it so much and can't wait to go everyday. Her teacher is amazing and really encourages her and nurtures her sweet little spirit. We could not be happier with where she is!! Isabel has been doing a great job of learning her letters and numbers. She has learned to recognize the sounds of all of the letters and her writing is great! Her teacher explained to us at the beginning of the school year that they do this thing called "BaggyBooks". The teacher and her aid spend a lot of quality time with the kids one on one. They work on letters and numbers and when they feel like the kids are ready they send them home with Baggy Books. This is exactly what it sounds like ..... A book that is in a baggy. They are small readers that the kids bring back and forth to school in a baggy. We get to practice reading at home and when they are ready they bring it back to school and get a new one. I knew Isabel was doing well in school. She was improving exponentially with her phonograms (basically, phonics), but I never imagined that she would be ready for a Baggy Book before the New Year. One da, the week before Thanksgivin, I picked her up from school and she looked up at me with these bright, excited eyes. She said, "MOMMY, I GOT A BAGGY BOOK!!" I couldn't believe my ears. We talked excitedly about it the whole way home and then when we got there I immediately opened her backpack to see for myself if it was there. Sure enough, there was a baggy and inside was a bright red reading book!! We took it out and sat down on the couch to read it. She began to sound out the first word and then before we knew it she had read the whole book ..... no helps, no stumbles! She looked at me with such pride on her face! I have to say the pride in my heart was leaps and bounds above what was showing on that sweet little face of hers! I hugged her and kissed her and we giggled and then we immediately called the grandparents!! The rule on the baggy books is that you have to read it no less than 5 times before returning it. Well, we read it so many times to so many people that first night that she had the book memorized before school the next morning. We brought it back and Joel explained to the teacher that we knew it was very quick, but she was reading from memory and needed a new one. The teacher was very excited and said that we should definitely give her a new book and keep the momentum going. Well, we are officially up and running with this reading thing. She loves it and is doing great! We are on our third Baggy Book already!! I like to think that she will be a bookworm like her mom! We are so proud of her and every time she reads to us it's as thrilling as that first time! She is amazing!!