EM PHAT I CAWLY

" I HEAR and I forget. I SEE and I remember. I DO and I understand. (Chinese Proverb)

Last night after dinner Tim asked to read the "Keys for Kids" devotional to us. This time I let him read the whole story, which was quite a task. But being the fearless child that he is, he was up to the task.

He is in the second grade and has a reading tutor. He is not in the same reading book as the others students in his class, but I sat in silence and amazement as he read to us last night. Last year in first grade he only had mid February thru May. They didn't teach him to read, and I taught him some and then thru the summer we focused on reading.

I laugh now at how he didn't think I, his mother, could teach him, a Chinese boy-who knew everything- how to read. He would get so frustrated when he made a mistake and he would argue with me at times about his reading. He sat there many times rocking back and forth as he read. It was like he had to be in motion to learn the words. This was the only time he did the rocking.

Back to our story last night. As I was sitting there, with him on my lap, he came to the word "emphatically". The sentence was ""No way!", he said emphatically. "I don't want anything to do with religion".

I told him not to say the word yet but to sound it out to himself slowly and if he got it correct I'd give him $5. I usually do not do this, but occasionally I have given him $1 for very hard words. Since this was such a difficult word, I raised the prize money. Well..he got the first part right EM PHAT but got hung up on the second part. He wanted to say I CAWLY. I think he saw the call and wanted to read it as that. He knows LY says the Chinese word li...I told him that trick early on.

I told him I was giving him $1 for getting the first half right.

By my observation over the past year, I realize he is a visual learner. He is challenged with audible learning at times. He can't focus too well if he can't see what you are talking about. But Sunday I realized he can listen well and remember if he is seeing it at same time.

He told me about the story of David and the big tall man he saw at school on a DVD. He told me what the big man said to David (he didn't remember Goliath's name). He told me what David did with the sling and where it hit Goliath and he died. I asked him what happened next and he told me the people were happy. I told him David chopped off Goliath's head with a sword and that he got the censored version of the story..ha ha. I can't picture the uncensored version on a DVD for kids..so that's fine by me!

So, my visual child can remember as long as he hears it while he is seeing it. He will make A's on his spelling test. He can look at words and remember them quickly. He can read well and remembers the sounds of phonics easily. He sometimes struggles in Math though,concepts that seem so easy to learn, but that is ok.

I told Tim -when he was finished reading the story- last night that he was doing so well with his reading and that Ms. Bendit (her name is Bennett but he calls her Bendit) was doing a great job tutoring him. But, God was the one who has blessed him with helping him to read. Our family and friends have commented over the past several months about how well he is doing with language. His teachers are also amazed and comment. I keep saying that God is the one who has blessed him, I can't take the credit. God has given him the abilities.