I can’t remember if I blogged about our stubborn little bee after the first report card or not but we had…uh…well…let’s just say Addie Roses had less than stellar marks in the ‘ol reading and spelling department.

Mrs. F. assured me that Addie was completely normal. And I assured Mrs. F. that Addie could sound out words and read many (little) books. But of course this whole ordeal made me a little bit crazy. I dissected it on the phone with my sister who is an educator, and talked about it ad naseum with all of my teacher friends here. Was it because I hadn’t spent enough time with the poor second child? Emma was flying through chapter books at this point in kindergarten, and I literally can’t stop her from reading every free minute she gets.

And yes, I know you cannot compare children. I’m well aware of that. But we parent them the same way – I’ve read to them every day of her lives. Surely Ad can’t be that different from Em, can she?

And then over Christmas, and pretty much for the past month or so, something clicked. I could almost see it “turn on” in Addie’s brain. And I remember Emma getting the same look in her eyes, the pride of reading a sign by herself, the confidence building within her with each finished book. And I am so happy to report that Addie is finally at that stage.

I was helping in her classroom on Friday and she just about floored me. Addie was sitting next to me writing in her journal while I helped her classmate. Addie had drawn a picture and told me what she wanted to write so I told her that I would help as soon as I was finished helping her friend. When I turned to help Addie, she said “Oh, I just sounded it out, Mama. I’m done.”  And her sentence said…

“This is a volcano.”

VOLCANO! She sounded out and correctly spelled v-o-l-c-a-n-o.

I think maybe all the worrying was for nothing. Little stinker. Apparently she can be that different from Emma. In fact, I’d say she is the exact opposite – at least in temperament.