*Hi Robin - you asked how I'm doing ... I was humming along, then this trial in early Feb. just sapped me.  I'm still bouncing back.  But we had this amazing victory yesterday ... read on if you'd like!

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**Note:  I just realized that I had left off the first paragraph - I had written it elsewhere, and copied and  pasted it here.  So here it is ... maybe it will make better sense now.

Isaac is 10, and he has turned his nose up at just about every book I've intro'd him to. If I say "story time" and I'm going to read to them, he begs me not to "have to come to story time." If we listen to an "Adventures in Odyssey" together, he stops me (we're listening on a tape or the internet where we can pause it) and says "I have NO idea what is going on." So comprehension has been an issue.

I had some input from Debbie Strayer a while back (author of Learning Language Arts Through Literature) on an email loop I was on, to really talk about everything we're reading.  If he can't repeat back to me what's happening, go ahead and tell him what's happening.  Stop as often as you need to, and give explanation. 

So, I went to the library the other day, and was scouring the shelves for something that would catch Isaac's attention and NOT be "twaddle."  I don't recommend that - I think that looking over book lists and deciding ahead of time is probably the better way.  But there I was ... and "Not-So-Normal Norman" by Cynthia Stowe was the book I chose.

I brought it home, and asked him to read the first chapter.  He moaned and groaned.  I urged him to go ahead.  He came back and said to me "I have no idea what this is about."  So I opened it up, and said "Let's go over the first chapter (short chapters - a child's first chapter book, so to speak).  He moaned and groaned.

By the end of it, he understood what was going on, but showed little interest in reading further.  I read the next two chapters to him, with all of the voice inflections and so on.  Now I had his interest.  I handed it to him and said "Now you read two chapters on your own."  He came back - he had read four chapters!  I KNEW he was reading further.  I could see him lying on the couch, soaking it in.  I was having my own mental celebration.

The following day, I asked him to read two more chapters.  He smiled and said "OK, I don't mind at all."  Victory!  Then, he went off for a long time, and came back having read the rest of the book.  There were 14 chapters in all.  I knew he had read more than I'd asked him, but I said "Did you read your two chapters?"  He smiled his "kind of proud" smile and said "I finished the book."  He added "It was good - it was actually really, really good."

This was huge for us - and this was just yesterday.  He still had a hard time putting into words what had happened in the book, but as I asked him a few questions it started coming.  Of course, I let him know how very pleased I was, and how proud I was of him.  His joy was written all over his face.  I think we jumped a major hurdle yesterday!