He has a condition called binocular dysfunction. Meaning his dominant eye changes. If he is looking at something and looks up when he looks back the dominant eye changes and he loses his place, making it difficult to follow a story or thought. He went through eye therapy for this and was pretty much finished when we moved to another state, and things kind of got away from us.
While trying to figure out how to make this year be "THE" year...I was spending a lot of time praying about this situation. I then remembered a set of small chapter books I had as a child. Each book only has like 4 or 5 chapters in them. I thought these would be perfect. Not too big to "scare" him but no pictures and fun at the same time.
My aunt was currently borrowing my set so I got them back from her. On the first day of school I introduced them to Lego Man. I said, you have to read 1 chapter a day. That's all...one chapter, then you have to tell me what that chapter was about. The first day he spelled...out loud...about every other word and asked what it was. It took him all day long to read one chapter...bless his heart. I was feeling a bit discouraged by the end of that day. The next day wasn't much better. The third day, I was like, "Lord, I can't do this! This is insane!" But I felt strongly, just keep doing what you are doing. Don't quit, just keep going. I honestly feel that God was encouraging me to just keep going. So that is what we did. When he started on the third day to ask every other word, his older brother, Firefighter, and I had a discussion with him about context...and all that. He asked a few words but not nearly as many. The next day I think he only asked about 2 words. Friday-one word. Now he very rarely if ever asks! There are 23 books in this set and he is on book 14. He is enjoying them! He often reads more than one chapter a day...some days he reads the whole book and asks for the next one! Brings tears to my eyes!
One day he brought his book to the table for family game night. Firefighter was like, "Whoa! I never would have gotten away with that! Bringing my book to the table!" But I was like, "Leave him alone! I'm so happy to see him reading AND ENJOYING it that I don't even care!" When he is done with this series I will give him a bigger chapter book, but I am so elated! So thankful! So thankful that I kept plugging on! Like it was some kind of test or something and I passed! THAT made ME feel good! And to see him reading and loving it! He gets so excited about some of the stories he is so funny!
Love my sweet boys! Yesterday I fell off a chair and landed hard on my backside. Kind of stoved my back a little. When the boys found out, they hugged me and said, "I'll pray for you momma! I'm praying for your back, hope it gets better fast!" Just hearing them say that made my eyes quickly fill with tears...and suddenly my back didn't hurt so bad. These boys could be giving there momma a rough way to go, but they are praying for me! I have much to be thankful for! So much...
Thankfully,
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